The Power of a Name Dr Who-Multi-Crossover Series 2
by sbbigsteve
Summary: Series 2 - "Time Lord Triumphant" Emboldened by his triumph on the Citadel, the self-named "Doctor" continues his adventures through the Multiverse alongside his Companions. As his victories mount the Doctor will learn that there is a darker side of his nature. He will learn that there is Power in a Name... and that it may drive him to become his own worst enemy.
1. Episode 1 - When It Rains, It Pours

**Episode 9 - When it Rains, it Pours**

There are times where my luck is truly horrid.

It wasn't long after my mandated vacation following the end of the Reapers that the girls and I found ourselves in lovely Melbourne, in the south of Australia, on some random early 21st Century Earth.

"So... these cars don't run on power cells," Camilla asked as we walked past a road with vehicles streaming by. "They run by _burning_ things?"

"Oil Petrol. Petroleum, actually," I answered. "It's essentially ancient dead things turned into this oily black fluid. They burn it for energy, in the case of the cars, to compress pistons that transfer the power to motive force. That's the sum of it anyway."

"And the pipes on the vehicles are for the waste gases?"

"Oh yes. Unfortunately, it took Humanity a while to figure out that when you've got thousands of the bloody things running in a small area, those gases build up, and you get something called smog. Rather nasty stuff. Oh, they found ways to reduce the effect, but until they switch to hydrogen-burners and electric battery motors it's going to be an issue."

Our lovely conversation about fossil fuels might have continued if I hadn't heard my sonic screwdriver suddenly let out a faint beep. I pulled it out. "Doctor?", Janias asked cautiously.

"Well well well, what do we have here?" I surveyed the reading. "Some form of temporal energy signature, and not from the TARDIS. That is completely unexpected."

"Could there be some advanced technology around?"

"I'm not sure, Cami." I shook my head slightly. "But I do know we need to investigate it. It shouldn't be here. Come along."

We walked through streets and by a posh looking convention hotel. As we walked across the back of the building along the loading dock the signal increased. "What have we here? It's moving." I picked up the pace, as did the girls. We emerged from the other side of the docking facility and began to jog down the street, my sonic's purple light blipping ever faster as we made progress.

We found ourselves entering an alleyway before the light went solid. I heard wheezing and looked up to see a figure in red leaning against the wall, catching his breath. When I pointed the sonic at him the readings came back positive. "Now that's not right, not right at all," I muttered. I stepped up toward the figure just as he looked up, getting a good look at him. Brownish hair, scruffy looking, rather skinny.

I had been about to comment on his rather out-of-place get-up for 200X-something Australia, the red robe and all, when my eyes focused on the hat on his head. Red as the robes, but there was something familiar with the way it was pointed. And then I read the gold letters on the hat.

At that point, I knew my day had just gotten enormously, terribly complicated, and that my luck was going to turn bad.

"I don't...", I started to say, but all I could do was stutter a moment as the man looked at me with fearful, forlorn eyes and the posture of a man who was always ready to run for his life. Which, given what I knew of his identity, was completely expected.

The letters on the hat? W-I-Z-Z-A-R-D.

"_Rincewind?!_", I spluttered. "Of all the... _you_? You're the source of the temporal energy?! How..."

Camilla stepped up between us and looked at him, then at me. "Doctor, what is it? Who is this man?"

"He's the worst wizard and perhaps the most unlucky individual in all of the six dimensions," I muttered. "And I think our day has just become tremendously more complicated."

* * *

I looked down at Rincewind and ran through the possibilities in my head, wondering how Rincewind had wound up here. Because, well...

The Multiverse can be a strange place, okay? That includes the Discworld. It's a disc-shaped planet that moves through space on the backs of four massive space elephants who are, in turn, standing atop the shell of a massive space turtle called the Great A'Tuin. It even has its own sun and moon that rotate around the disc.

What I was trying to figure out was how Rincewind had wound up on "Roundworld", as the Disc's wizards called it.

He had a very forlorn look on his face. I sighed and added, "Calling him the worst is a tad unfair, he's saved his world a couple of times."

"And who are you?", Rincewind asked. He seemed very... well, very depressed. And not the usual Rincewind style of melancholy. He looked like a man who'd just had what little he'd believed in yanked out from under him.

"Me? I'm the Doctor. These are my companions, Janias and Camilla." I crossed my arms. "So, you're rather lost, aren't you?"

"I'm not just lost, I'm _fictional_," Rincewind answered. He held up a book. I took it and saw that it was, well, one of the Discworld novels with him in it. "All made up by some bastard named..."

"Pratchett," I answered. "Clever bloke, very witty. Big fan myself." I looked to the girls before returning my attentions to the lost wizard. "Okay, it looks like it's time for some invoking of sixth dimensional spacey-wacey science. You're not fictional. Sir Terry simply... well... it's very complicated and it involves power of mortal thought and..." I felt a blank expression cross my face as my mind failed to grasp the mechanisms involved here. "I'm not sure how it works. But you're not just fictional. Frankly, everyone is probably fictional to someone out in six-dimensional space."

The thought that this applied to me as well crossed my mind. I decided that if it was true, I had a few complaints to issue to my author about things.

Seeing that what I was saying had little effect on Rincewind, I clapped my hands together. "Well, I have always fancied a trip to the Disc. How about I take you back to Ankh-Morpork?"

Curiosity showed on that gaunt face. "How would you do that, huh? Are you a wizard too or something?"

"Something like that." I held out my remote control and materialized the TARDIS beside us. "She's a ship. She can travel through six dimensions of space-time," I explained to him. "I'm a little curious about how she'll handle the Disc's quantum wibbly-wobbly field."

I opened the door and we entered. Well, not all of us. Rincewind stood at the threshold and looked in with great fear and trepidation. "Well, come along Rincewind," I said politely.

"It's... you know, I'm not... I just know there's something horrible in here that will try to eat me or possess me or something."

"Not in this case," I assured him. "My TARDIS is very friendly and chipper. You'll be... _reasonably_ safe."

Rincewind didn't move.

I sighed and leaned against the rail. "Well, if you want to stay here, I mean, trying to fit in on 21st Century Earth with automobiles and the Internet and all of that is going to be pretty exciting, a regular adventure. Surely more enjoyable than going back to tired old Ankh-Morpork and that suffocating boredom at the Unseen University, I could see why you'd choose to stay..."

It was rather impressive how quickly Rincewind stepped in and went to the controls.

I closed the door. "Well, now that we've settled that... off we go to the Disc. First things first." I brought out my sonic and scanned Rincewind with it.

"What is..."

"Sonic screwdriver. Mostly harmless. _Mostly_." I felt it appropriate to not make things seem too safe. Rincewind wouldn't believe it. Better for him to think it was just potentially unsafe. "I'm getting a sample of the temporal energy permeating your body. It'll let me bring you back to the moment you fell through into this Earth."

"As long as it's not _where_."

"Oh?"

"I was being chased," he clarified.

That got him a blank look from me, my way of pointing out that "being chased" didn't necessarily narrow down the possibilities. "Was it in Ankh-Morpork?", I asked simply.

"Oh, no."

"Then I think you'll be fine." I patted him on the shoulder and fed the temporal energy signature into the TARDIS. ?"Just a few adjustments and..." I pulled the lever.

A couple of seconds passed and the TARDIS lurched heavily under us. We all went flying. Rincewind screamed.

I struggled back to the controls as the lurching subsided. "Well, we materialized," I announced. "I'm just not sure why the ride was so bumpy."

"it always gets bumpy when things are about to go crazy," Janias complained.

Rincewind stepped up gingerly to the door. With a final sigh of resignation he opened it. Outside I could see the cloudy skies and cobble-stoned streets I'd expected. Rincewind stepped out and ran his hands alongside a nearby wall, moving down toward the nearest street. "It worked," he said, seeming rather shocked. But not surprising given Rincewind's usual experiences. A moment later his face fell. "So, what's going to go wrong next?"

"I'm not sure," I admitted. I had my own leery feelings about the situation, since the violence of our journey seemed too great for merely entering the Disc. I looked down at my sonic screwdriver. "And I'm still picking up that temporal energy source from you. It must be somewhere in the city."

I took the precaution of locking the TARDIS after we all stepped out. As we walked along what looked to be a standard alleyway in Ankh-Morpork, a curious and very... _memorable_ smell came to our attention. The girls' faces curled in displeasure. I took in a partial breath and let out a cough. "Well, that'll clear the sinuses. I always wondered what the Ankh-Morpork atmosphere smelled like. Now all we need to do is watch the Ankh catch fire for that perfect Ankh-Morpork experience."

"Won't happen for a while yet, it's still spring," Rincewind said.

"Oh well..."

And then we heard it, the thunk of something hitting the streets. We looked back down the alleyway, or rather a T-section formed by a second alley leading into this one, right beside where the TARDIS had appeared.

There were a group of men - and one possible woman since the shape could go either way - standing in front of the TARDIS. They had what looked to be pretty rough-worn clothing. One was missing an eye and all had scars. I was sure one was a dwarf, though possibly on the tall side. And each had a dagger in their hand. "So, gent, have you any dollars for charity?", the lead man asked, a wicked look on his face. Ankh-Morpork criminals weren't about to let things like people appearing in magic boxes get in the way of money, after all.

I reached my hand out and took Janias before she could brandish her lightsaber. "May I see your Guild licenses?"

"Heh. Hear that everyone?" The leader laughed. "He wants to see our licenses."

They all laughed.

So... _unlicensed_ thieves. I could see color fading from Rincewind's face. To be an unlicensed thief in Ankh-Morpork for any good amount of time, you had to be either completely lucky or very nasty, because the Thieves' Guild took... exception to unlicensed thievery (due to how much they were held responsible for the city's crime rate). They were big on not permitting repeat offenses.

"Hows about we show them our license?!", the leader roared over the laughter. "C'mon out Cobbly!"

The name alone indicated what we were about to face. The thumping sound of rock hitting stone and the scraping of rock against stone was the next clue, so I already knew what to expect when a figure that had to be eight feet tall loomed around the corner.

A troll. With a big, big club, and the belt of skulls to go with what looked to be a loincloth. Gang symbols were etched into its brown and, well, light brown flesh. Its flesh being solid metamorphical rock, for those unfamiliar with this world's trolls.

"Cobbly, I've got a pack of the best Slab in the city if you smash that gent's stupid brains in. Maybe his girlies will be more co-or-operative."

"I can take him," Janias murmured.

"No, I'm not having you carve him up," I insisted in a low voice. Somehow I imagined having a troll and these thieves carved up by a lightsaber would be just strange enough to draw the attention of the city's varied authorities. And I didn't want trouble with the likes of the City Watch or the wizards at Unseen University, since to them a lightsaber would seem like a magic instrument and invite attention.

"You see my good friend here, right?", I retorted, grabbing Rincewind by the arm. "Notice the pointy hat and robes? That's who you're messing with if you keep this up. I'm sure there's something revolting enough we can turn you into."

For a brief moment it looked like it had worked. Unfortunately, it was a warm spring day, and without something like a clockwork fan Cobbly's silicon brain was too hot to help him think things through. Presuming he had enough of a brain left if he was a Slab-user. He charged, club raised.

Rincewind took off like a jackrabbit. I decided to follow. It wasn't like I couldn't summon the TARDIS back on my own anyway.

There was lumbering behind us as the troll advanced, his friends racing ahead. It spurred us on to go even faster.

Rincewind still outran us all.

He kept going, in fact, even as it was clear we'd outran the gang and were in the main city streets. I could guess he was going to keep running until he got back to the University. My Companions and I followed until the crowds were thick enough that we couldn't keep sight of him. I came to a stop and let out a breath.

"I could have chased them off!", Janias insisted.

"Have you ever fought a Wookiee or a Houk on spice, Janias?", I asked. "Because that's still not as bad as a Troll who's been cooking his brain regularly with stuff like Slab. And even if you won, they'd leave remains, and given how this place works I know it'd just get the Watch or even the Wizards involved. I'd like to avoid that kind of trouble here."

"Besides, we can just summon the TARDIS back," Cami pointed out. "We've returned Rincewind to his home, is there anything else to do?"

"Find out what's causing this temporal energy signature, for one," I remarked.

"Let's hurry then, because this place reeks," Janias complained. "And I..."

Her expression changed to one of deep concern. She turned to face beyond Cami and I, prompting us to turn as well.

A building nearby was having something heavy looking, kept in a crate, hefted into its second floor by a pulley. I could see from where I was that the pulley was failing.

And in its shadow was a young lady pushing a stroller. Yes, there was a baby in it.

I sighed. This is how the Discworld tends to work. Events don't just happen, they happen within a narrative. The world is a collection of stories that operate, or at least tend toward, certain narrative rules.

The rope snapped. There was a scream as the woman looked up in time to see something come down to crush her.

Janias shouted, "No!", and reached out with the Force. The crate went horizontal and slammed into the building, smashing in the process. There was the distinct shattering of glass, with broken shards joining the splinters of wood debris.

All eyes turned on us. The man who had been supervising the operation, seemingly ignorant of how his faulty rope had nearly killed someone, pointed an accusing finger our way. "You... that was an entire shipment of fine crystal balls! I'm goin' to be ruined!"

The woman cradled her child and looked our way as well. "You tried to kill my baby!"

"What are you talking about?", Janias asked, utterly mystified. "I _stopped_ it from falling on..."

"She must've cut the rope with her magic!", the businessman accused. "Lookin' to harm my business!"

"You tried to kill..."

"...must be a witch!"

"...attackin' fine citizens like that..."

Ankh-Morpork was always given to street theater, and between the man undoubtedly not wanting to recognize his own screw-up and the woman's surprise and fear, well, I could see them being initially antagonistic until their passions cooled. But Janias couldn't even get a word in before the crowd was screaming "Witch!" with great fervor and anger. Even for Ankh-Morpork it didn't seem... right.

I opened my mouth to defend my companion, already reaching for my psychic paper to aid in that, when I let out a gag almost before I knew why. My senses were assaulted, violently, by something putrid and horrible, a smell that overwhelmed the odor of the city with something far worse. My hand went to my head as my brain spun under the imbalance it felt; my nose was failing to sense this new stench, but my mind insisted it was there. "Do you smell that?", I said hoarsely.

"I smell a witch!", someone in the crowd screamed.

Looking at Janias' face, she sensed it too, although she was also looking with increasing concern on what looked to be a forming lynch mob.

"Smell what?", Camila asked. "I don't smell..." And then her face twisted. She had normal Human senses, but I imagined that her mind was such that, at least in the rules of the Discworld, she could be receptive to such sense as well.

My eyes scanned the growing crowd. I had a feeling on what I'd find, because I recognized this now.

And there he was. Standing amidst the crowd, scowling, a figure in black. A voice came to my head. _Filth! Evil! I sense you harlots now, and you will burn!_

I searched the horrible face for features, and found myself looking through his eyes... and to the crowd beyond. He had no eyes. He had nothing behind them either. I could literally see through his head at the points where his eyes should be.

Rincewind had, indeed, been the harbinger of bad luck for us.

"Doctor, I see a man," I heard Camilla whisper, her voice barely audible even this close compared to the angry mob. "But his eyes..."

"Yes." I nodded, knowing the name of this new foe. Somehow the unlicensed thieves and their drugged up troll enforcer seemed charming now compared to what we were facing.

"It's the Cunning Man."

* * *

Facing a growing mob is a pretty sober experience. Mobs may be made of individuals, with their own minds, but get enough people together and give them reason to feel fear or anger or just sheer crabbyness and you'll get something closer to a hive mind.

Now take that combustible mix and throw in an old madman ghost of bottomless hatred for anything smacking to him of witchcraft, who's hatred was so pervasive that simply being in proximity of it could drive anyone, even witches themselves, to acts of hate against anyone who could be a "witch".

We might as well have been sitting on a barrel of dynamite. At least the smell would improve.

"This is all just a terrible misunderstanding," I said aloud, knowing it wouldn't work, even as the stench of the Cunning Man's corruptive mind continued to assault my senses.

"Doctor, I don't think they're listening," Janias murmured. "Whatever that darkness is..."

"Quiet, Janias, you've gotten us into enough trouble as it..." I saw her bewildered expression and caught myself. I took as deep a breath as I dared. "He's even getting to me," I murmured. "He's even getting to _me_."

By this point quite a few blunt objects were showing amongst the growing crowd. I grabbed the girls' hands and prepared to run for it before we were completely and hopelessly surrounded.

"Hello everyone!"

The chipper voice told me who it was even before I turned to look into the shiny, mirror-like breastplate of armor moving through the crowd. I was the only one present who was taller than the newcomer, giving me a higher angle to look at the bits of red hair showing under a steel helmet. Honest blue eyes scanned the crowd and the expression never wavered from what I figured to be the standard cheeryness of its owner.

Captain Carrot Ironfoundersson looked over to the broken crate and shattered crystal balls. And then he looked up to the pulley and back down to where the snapped rope had fallen. "Mr. Krist, I thought you were going to replace that bad rope yesterday? I told you it wouldn't hold another heavy load."

The business owner turned from where he was glaring hatefully at us and took on a sudden expression of embarrassment and shame. "Yes, well... had a last minute order, I had to get it taken care of, you know how it is Captain."

"That could have seriously hurt someone, Mister Krist," Carrot pointed out with just a hint of reproachment.

"The witch made it snap!", Krist accused. The stench that my nose did not smell was growing. He pointed a finger at Janias. "She did it!"

"This is preposterous!", Camilla thundered. "It had snapped already, she just kept it from hitting that poor woman and her baby!"

Unfortunately, with the Cunning Man present the potential victim was not on our side. "She tried to kill my baby!", the mother accused. "She's a witch!"

Carrot nodded and stepped up to us. I may have been taller, but I knew those muscles bulging under his chainmail were a greater advantage. "Are you a witch, ma'am?"

"I'm a..."

"Not anymore," I answered for her. "She still has a little magic talent, but she spends her time traveling with me, Captain." I smiled at him and extended a hand. "i'm the Doctor, Captain. Pleased to meet you."

"Are you from the Free Hospital, Doctor...?"

"I'm new to the city, actually. Well, relatively new, I've read up on it quite a bit. Your reputation proceeds you, Captain Ironfoundersson." As an afterthought I added, "And it's just 'the Doctor'."

"I see. Well, Doctor, I would like your statement."

I nodded. As I went to give it, I felt the stench growing. The crowd had grown, as every Morporkian loved their street theater, but that gave the Cunning Man more people to influence. If things held on even longer even Carrot's natural charisma wouldn't work. "My friend acted to save lives, sir, and that is the truth."

"He's protecting the witches!", Krist shouted. "He's a witch-lover!"

I saw the Cunning Man had inched closer as he moved through the crowd. We were running out of time. "Captain, a moment with my friends?" When he nodded I stepped back and huddled with the girls. "Do you trust me? Because there's only one way out of this."

"Of course we trust you," Camilla insisted.

"That means you must do exactly as I say," I remarked. "Don't worry about anything else. I'll make sure you're all right."

"Okay,..." Janias looked befuddled. Undoubtedly she was working just as hard on keeping the Cunning Man out of her head.

The thought of Janias taken over by him sent a shudder through me.

"Right then." I stood up and turned to Carrot. "Captain, in the interests of civic peace, my friends will turn themselves over to your custody and agree to be kept at Pseudopolis Yard tonight."

They looked at each other warily. The crowd also looked a little out of sorts.

Carrot, however, didn't. He could see what I was doing. "That is very good of them, Doctor."

"Indeed." My voice lowered. "And I trust they will be well-treated in the protective custody of you and Commander Vimes?"

"Of course." Carrot nodded, his reply as hushed as mine was.

"Very well. Girls..."

They looked at me with some trepidation, but they didn't hold back. Each stepped up to Carrot, who led them through the gathering crowd. My eyes followed them, looking for any sign of an attack, but the crowd's hate and fear was draining away and the Cunning Man's influence wasn't enough right now to overpower Carrot's sheer charisma.

With the girls gone, the city people started milling away, leaving Mister Krist to clean up his broken crystal. I stood quietly as they did so, thinking of what to do next. The Cunning Man was loose in the city and I still had this temporal energy source to investigate, with my only lead being the one man in the six dimensions who ran faster than I could (well, naturally faster).

Well, first things first, I had to get the TARDIS back. Then I could deal with the girls' stay with the Watch and hunt this trouble down. Since I didn't want to summon the TARDIS in the middle of the street I walked down a ways and stepped into an alley. I brought my remote control out and gripped it. I started to think of the TARDIS...

And let myself get distracted.

There was the sound of a boot pushing quietly against cobbles behind me. I turned to face the sound.

A sharp pain filled my head as something landed on it. I collapsed over, feeling everything go black.

When the blackness faded I sat up. I looked to the TARDIS control in my hand...

...and it wasn't there. Instead I found a note.

_"Apologies for the bump on the head. My apprentice doesn't know his own strength. You will find his license number and mine printed on reverse should you wish to lodge a complaint._  
_Purchase of a year's protection now at a low price of twenty dollars, return of locket included!_  
_Signed,_  
_Jerry Pincher_  
_Ankh-Morpork Thieves' Guild, Lic. No. 390874"_

I let out a groan and a small curse for ever running into Rincewind. The man's luck had truly rubbed off on me.

I realized how much it had when I reached for my sonic screwdriver and found it was gone as well. I was frantic as I reached for the sonic disruptor on my waist and found that it was also gone. A quick check of another pocket showed my psychic paper had also been removed.

Now I was alone and unarmed in the middle of Ankh-Morpork.

God, er, Gods damn Rincewind.

Defying my luck, I murmured, "How could things get any..."

"There he is!"

I looked down the alley and saw the unlicensed thieves from before, with their troll enforcer already moving toward me.

When it rains, it pours, they say. In Ankh-Morpork, it always seems to be pouring.

* * *

The troll "Cobbly" had his club raised and ready to smash my head into pulp, and even if I evaded him there was nearly a half-dozen unlicensed thieves ready to explore my anatomy the hard way (the hard way for me, that is). And I was utterly defenseless.

A young lady's voice rang out. "Get out of the way, sir!" I habitually moved to the side.

There was a familiar sound; it was my sonic disruptor, set to a high power mode, and the sonic waves it emitted slammed into Cobbly with enough force to send him flying backward and into his gang. A hand grabbed mine. "Come on, we'll lose them over on Treacle Mine, there's a Watch House there!"

I got a glimpse of my rescuer as we ran out into the street. Brown hair flowed out from under a tattered looking wool cap of blue color; her jacket was a very faded blue and her trousers looked like a re-hemmed set of men's trousers, of similarly-faded blue. She had my sonic disruptor in her free hand while the other grasped mine. We ran down the streets and random alleys before arriving in a neighborhood milling with incredibly short people - dwarfs, in other words. In comparison to them she wasn't much taller, showing she was of a rather young age herself (even accounting for the malnutrition of a street urchin).

Only once we were within sight of the Treacle Mine Road Watch House did she stop, allowing us to catch our breath. She offered the disruptor to me. "Billy Lanny swiped it from you, Mister, but I got it back."

I accepted it with a smile. "Thank you kindly, young lady. He didn't happen to swipe anything else?"

"No, sir. I came up just as he was rifling your pockets."

The young lady was better spoken than a normal city urchin, I noticed. "Well, my thanks again. I'm the Doctor."

"Doctor? That's some sort of nickname?"

"Of a sorts," I conceded. "And you are...?"

"Don't really have a name, my mum died when I was little. I guess you could use my friend's name for me." She flushed a little from impending embarrassment. "Great-Are-The-Blessings-of-Om's-Charity."

"Ah, an Omnian friend." I winked at her. "Well, that's not too embarrassing a name. 'Charity' certainly fits, doesn't it?"

"I suppose," she conceded. "I'll probably use it when I'm old enough to join the Watch."

"You want to be a Watchwoman, eh? Well, you've got the good parts down, I'd say." I leaned against the wall of the nearest building and looked over the sonic disruptor. It was better than nothing, but I wouldn't feel better until I had my sonic screwdriver back. Finding it, though... another problem on top of the problems I had. I tinkered with the disruptor for a moment; it was never made for the sensitive work the screwdriver was capable of, but it did have some scanning capability. I held it up and watched the purple tip light up. "Temporal energy sources are getting stronger. Not good."

"Is that some kind of magic?", Charity asked. "It's too small to be a wizard staff, that I know."

"It's... well, it's a sort of magic I suppose," I answered. "It's something called technology. Very advanced machinery. And when machines get advanced enough, well, it can look like magic if you don't know what it is."

"I just don't want you to get into any trouble with the wizards is all," Charity said. "They get nasty about it when they think people are playing wizard and haven't been to the University."

"So I've heard." I tinkered with the settings a little. "So, I'm rather new to the city, do you think you could show me to..." I stopped. At the end of my senses a stomach-churning stench was starting to come to my attention. "Oh no. He's near again, I can smell it."

"Who's near?," Charity asked. "It isn't Foul Ole Ron, is it?"

"I wish. It's..." Yes, the stench was getting stronger. I looked over to a nearby crate of, well, something and, after gingerly testing it, stood on it a moment and looked down both sides of the street.

In the far distance, down toward what I presumed was the Shades, I could see a black figure looming over the dwarves milling about. He passed through the curtain-covered sedan of one of the conservative dwarves without notice.

"It's... I'm not a wizard, but you know how wizards can see things others can't? I'm a bit like that." I got off the crate and took her hand. "And right now we've got a malevolent spirit of utter hate walking toward us."

Charity looked at me with confusion, which turned to realization. "Does this have anything to do with how people are screamin' at ladies with warts or too many cats, calling them 'witches'?"

"Remarkably astute of you, Charity. I'm thinking that yes, yes it does." I drew in a breath. "And I think it's after me."

It occured to me, at that point, that the Cunning Man _was_ after me. Undoubtedly he'd sensed something of my nature, and that would make me an ideal host for him.

I thought of the damage that might happen if the Cunning Man took me over and couldn't suppress the shudder.

"Do you want to get help from the wizards?"

I thought about it. But I wasn't sure they'd listen very much, especially if they came to see me as a magic practitioner. No, someone more understanding, I thought.

...or someone who had a foot in the wizards' door without being a full wizard. And someone with experience in temporal matters too, a sort of two birds-one stone possibility for me.

"How far is Tenth Egg Street?", I asked.

"Not far," she said. "We can go faster if we cut through Quarry Lane."

"Ah." I wondered about the risks of leading the Cunning Man through the center of Ankh-Morpork's troll neighborhood. But the sooner I got where I was going, the better.

"What do you want on Tenth Egg, sir?", Charity asked as we walked along, away from the approaching specter.

"Help," I replied succinctly.

* * *

We had no immediate sight of the Cunning Man when we stepped up to our destination. "_This_ is where you want help?", Charity asked skeptically. "This is..."

"...perfect." I smiled.

After all, in my line of work, some good Boffo was _always_ useful.

The Boffo Novelty and Joke Shop, No. 4 Tenth Egg Street, stood before us. I stepped up and listened as the whoopie cushion let out its simulated flatulence. A step around a skeleton hanging over the entrance and I was able to go straight to the counter. Charity glanced around the shop as I waited for the man at the counter to turn to me. He held something up before lowering it dejectedly. "I'm just no good at this," he lamented.

"Comedy is hard," I agreed. "I would like to speak to Mrs. Proust. I need some... special assistance."

I waited as he looked over to a hole in the floor. "Mother! A gent is up here askin' for you."

There was an exasperated sound from beneath us. I turned and faced a wart-faced old hag as she rose from the floor with a trapdoor mechanism. "Ah, Mrs. Proust, I'm the Doctor, and this is my friend Charity."

She looked at me warily. "Now you're a strange one. There's something off about you. About both of you." She gave a look toward Charity.

That intrigued me a bit, but I had other issues to focus on. "Mrs. Proust, I'm in a spot of bother at the moment and need some special assistance. From an acquaintance of yours."

"Oh, an 'acquaintance' you say," she asked suspiciously.

"Yes. There is a certain lady out and about who has a very unique job. You might remember her because her staff doesn't have a knob on it like certain others do."

Mrs. Proust narrowed her eyes. "Yes, I know who you're talking about." There was a moment's pause. "You've been around a rather nasty stink, haven't you?"

I nodded.

Mrs. Proust sighed. "There's nothing my... acquaintance can do to help you with the Cunning Man, Doctor. We all have to face him in our own way."

"I imagined not, but that's not the only issue."

"You've got other problems than the Cunning Man being after you, Doctor? Oh my, what a complicated life you must lead."

"Quite."

I knew I was being scrutinized, closely. Mrs. Proust was a City Witch and had the instincts to go with that appellation, not to mention the skills. "Let's just say your acquaintance and I have similar... interests. And I'm picking up something very distressing in this city that relates to her interest."

Mrs. Proust looked to think for a moment. "Then she'll find you, sir. She'll find you. In the meanwhile, I'll send you and the young lady out the back door. Try to stay out of trouble, the Cunning Man will find you more easily if there's trouble. And keep running."

I allowed myself a small smile. "Running, ma'am, is one of my many talents."

After we left the shop I brought up my sonic disruptor and began tinkering with it. "You can head on if you wish," I said to Charity. "It can be dangerous, following me."

She gave me a bemused look. "Sir, it's _Ankh-Morpork_, this entire city is dangerous."

Charity had me there.

A part of me wondered about this girl. Not so much her, well, charitable nature, but what Mrs. Proust had said. That she sensed something about her. Granted, this was the Disc. She could be a potential Witch or a Goddess in disguise or just a girl who'd cut through the Unreal Estate over by the University. Or a werewolf, I supposed.

"You live on the street?", I asked.

"Sometimes. I get beds at homes sometimes. The Watch sometimes gives me a bed at a Watch house."

"Because of your friends in the Watch." I nodded.

"And I do odd jobs when they need doin'."

"Of course." I got out the letter left to me by the thieves who took my TARDIS control. "Do you know this chap?"

She looked over the letter. "Oh, the old Pincher. Swell chap. He's being generous, offering a twenty dollar protection with your suit and all. He probably figured you were some shop-owning gent who dresses up a bit instead of really posh."

"He's got a... device of mine, he thinks it's a locket. I need it to get something of mine back."

"And you don't have twenty dollars," Charity realized. "Well, he might let you get the locket back for a few."

"I don't have local currency," I clarified. "And anything I could sell is on my TARDIS."

"What's a TARDIS?"

"It's... a ship of sorts. It'd be hard for me to explain without showing it off, and the only way to get it back is with my locket," I answered. "Well, I'll have to deal with Mister Pincher when the time comes. But for now..." I held up my sonic disruptor. "I need to find my sonic screwdriver."

The sonic disruptor wasn't meant to be used as a scanning tool. I'd never zero in on the temporal disturbance, or Rincewind, with it. I needed my sonic screwdriver.

Thankfully, my disruptor and screwdriver _were_ designed to find each other.

We moved through the city at some speed, staying out of trouble and avoiding the crowds. I kept the disruptor inside my jacket, checking it only in alleyways when we wouldn't be seen by too many people.

We wound up along the Ankh and back on Treacle Mine Road. A path led down to under a bridge. "Oh no," I heard Charity mumble. "Doctor, you don't want to go down there."

"Oh?", I asked... and right afterward I realized why. "Oh dear. This is... _their_ hideout, isn't it?"

"Oh yes," Charity replied.

I took in a deep breath. "Well, it will be hard... but I really need my sonic screwdriver back." And so I continued walking down, Charity at my side.

At the bottom was a fire being tended by several figures. As I took in the sight of them, I was assailed by the Smell.

The Cunning Man's stench wasn't a physical one, it was the brain trying to process the sheer corruption and rot of his soul. This was physical, this was a stench that had its own life. And it only belonged to one man.

"Bugrit! Millennium hand and shrimp!"

I looked onto the overcoat clad figure that was Foul Ole Ron, sitting by a fire. Beyond him was the cast I expected: Coffin Henry, Sideways Arnold, Altogether Andrews, and the Duck Man. These men were the most effective beggars in all of Ankh-Morpork, mostly because anyone would give them money to make them go away. Neville St. Clair holds nothing to these gentlemen.

Ron's hand pulled up from a kettle he was stirring. I almost groaned at seeing my sonic screwdriver was the stirring tool.

"What is it you want?", one voice called out. He had a duck on his head. I knew better than to bring the animal up in conversation.

"I lost a couple pieces of property earlier," I explained. "And it would seem you gentlemen found them."

"Found 'em in an alley, yeah," Altogether Andrews said, although I wasn't sure which personality it was. "Some poor bloke was laid out. Weird stuff. Wallet told me Ron was from the Palace."

"That bloke was me," I explained. It made my head throb again.

"Ah."

"So, if this stuff is yours, we get a finder's fee right? Only fair."

The voice didn't come from anywhere in particular, or so it seemed. I noticed a little gray dog looking up from the fire. It was not the kind of animal you'd associate with the canine varieties. One could only guess how many breeds of dog existed in his DNA.

The dog looked at us and said, "Woof."

"Ah, the brains of the outfit, no offense Duck Man." I smirked and looked down at the dog.

The dog's mouth moved. "Why're you lookin' at the dog? Everyone knows dogs can't talk."

"Actually, I've met one before. His name was Mouse. Rather fine canine, good friend of mine. As smart as you, I imagine."

Charity pulled my sleeve. The dog shifted its head. "Dunno what you're sayin', mister."

"You know how wizards can see things as they really are?", I asked. "I'm a Time Lord. I have a similar capability."

"Gaspode, right?", Charity asked. "I heard talk that Captain Carrot knows a talking dog."

There was a moment of silence. "Okay, fine, you're onto me. I'm a talkin' dog. But that doesn't change nuthin'. You've got a finder's fee for us? I'd be surprised that a fine poshy type would take back anythin' used by Foul Ole Ron, though I won't stop ya."

"I'm a newcomer to the city, I've got nothing of value," I answered. "But if I can get my personal transportation back, I wouldn't mind making it worth your while."

"And I ask, what's to stop you from just runnin' off, leavin' this poor doggy and his friends without their proper reward?"

"My good word is about all I have." I almost put my hand on my sonic disruptor, now under my jacket. I had once programmed it and the screwdriver to be able to remotely pull in the other. But would it work with someone holding the screwdriver? And I couldn't pull the psychic paper back like that. Even if I got the screwdriver back, I knew getting the paper back would require... harsher measures than I was prepared to consider.

Plus, well, it didn't feel... right. Even if it was my thing, looking at the "Cantering Crew" you couldn't help but feel pity for people who lived in these circumstances. I wanted to give them some kind of aid if I could.

"Ah, wallet's no good," Coffin Henry said dismissively, tossing my psychic paper behind him. "Keeps sayin' I'm from the University. No good messin' with magic, I tell you."

Charity walked over and picked the psychic paper up. "It says I'm an Inspector in the City Watch."

"See? Magic." Coffin Henry shook his head.

Charity handed me the paper back and I stuck it in my pocket. "It shows people what I want them to see. Or if you're handling it, it goes by what position you consider important. Or it just randomly plucks one out if you don't have one." I didn't breathe in any relief yet. I still needed the sonic screwdriver back, and Ron was hanging onto it.

"So, good words don't feed, you don't have nuthin' to offer?", Gaspode asked.

I'd decided on a new tack. "I would point out to you, gentlemen, that my little rod there is just as magical as the wallet."

"Yeah, what's it do?", Duck Man asked.

"Just about everything," I answered. "In the wrong hands, there's no telling what damage it could do."

"Bugrit," Ron muttered.

"Even so, you want the thingie back, we deserve sumthin'."

"And I need it back if I'm to give you something."

It was clear we were at an impasse (or "imp arse" if you prefer). As much as I hated the thought of it, I might have to try the disruptor's link to the screwdriver and take it back that way.

My decision was made when even the stench of Foul Ole Ron and his cohorts was becoming overpowered by the one returning in my head. Gaspode's head went up. "That's a new smell, ain't it?"

"Yes," I remarked. "He's called the Cunning Man. Old, crazy spirit of hate. I think he's after me."

"I don't want nuthin' to do with that kind of thing, you hear? Push off."

"Not without my little magic rod," I said. I crossed my arms and sighed. "I guess I'll wait for him to devour us all. Burn us from inside out, that's what he does."

"Why don't you just come with us?", Charity asked. "You can make sure the Doctor gives you the pay you're asking after he gets his things back."

Gaspode let out a frustrated whine. "I don't do the adventurin' stuff anymore. Not since I got pulled to Uberwald."

"Then you'll just have to trust I'll bring you some suitable compensation." I looked behind me and then up. I thought I could see the Cunning Man in the distance, a black spec on the sickly green miasma that was the River Ankh. "But I can't take no for an answer. There's a problem in this city and I need my tool to deal with it."

For a moment I almost took out the sonic disruptor and used it. A relatively gentle broad-arc blast would knock them over and startle them, hopefully enough that Ron's grip on the screwdriver would lessen. Then I'd just activate the link and pull it in like a magnet.

Charity stepped up. "I'll get some dollars for you as soon as I can, if you help. I do little jobs. It'll take a while."

"I think I know you. Ain't you friends to ol' Nobby?"

I raised an eyebrow. Charity nodded. "I know him, yeah."

"And I've seen you passin' 'round pamphlets for the other one, that foreign one."

Something in my head went click, but I couldn't think of what it was at the moment given how focused I was on the screwdriver, and on the approaching black figure coming over the Ankh.

A thought came to me. Even if I left... would he come for Ron and his crew? Would he try to possess them or otherwise harm them? There was no telling what a spirit like that might do. And he continued coming toward us, strolling along the Ankh...

...the Ankh.

I looked from that distant figure and to the water below him. And then I looked to Ron and his friends.

Specifically, their _fire_.

I ran forward, ignoring the screwdriver for the moment and yanking one of the old wooden planks they were burning. The heat of the flame baked my face as I held it up and made sure I had a good bit of fire to it. Holding it away so I didn't set myself on fire I threw the plank into the Ankh between me and the Cunning Man. He was still about ten feet away from the point the plank landed, but I could throw something like that only so far.

The plank hit the Ankh with an audible "gloop" and sank. The fire started to disappear.

I'd been counting too much on something on the Ankh being easily combustible. Instead the Ankh's thickness was going to stifle the flame. "So well for that pl..."

A geyser of fire erupted from the surface of the Ankh. Flames began to spread outward from where my thrown flame had landed, making the entire river burn. Beyond the flames I could see the Cunning Man stop and bring his arms up protectively. He started to back away.

"That's right!", I shouted. "I know about you! I know you don't like fire, you miserable old ghost! Now _bugger off!_"

With the flames forming a barrier across the river, we had time. We had more if the Cunning Man was suitably scared of me for the moment now that he had seen I knew how to fight him. I turned back to the fireplace. "Gentlemen, I hate to be rude, but I need that screwdriver back, and I need it back now. I'll bring you something later when I'm sure the city is safe."

Gaspode looked from the flames and back to me. A little whine came from his throat. "Sure, fine. Word of honor and all that. Take it."

"Feel free to follow if you want," I added as Gaspode retrieved the screwdriver from Ron and brought it up to me in his mouth. I tried not to grimace as I took my prize tool back, now permeated with Gaspode's saliva and a whiff of Ron's odor. The Smell was likely part of my suit already as it was. I was thankful I'd paid Garak to make a few extra copies of it (after Mitakihara and the Citadel I'd learned the value of backup suits in the wardrobe).

With that work done, we left the Crew behind.

After we were back on street level, I wiped off the screwdriver with the corner of my jacket and brought it up. The purple tip lit up. "There you are, my dear," I said, smiling. "Back where you belong."

"Why do you call it a screwdriver?"

"Because it's always been called that. I didn't give it the name." I made sure Ron's use of it as a kettle stirrer hadn't caused any damage and ran the test functions a few more times. With that done I scanned for the temporal energy. Knowing full results would take a bit, I looked to Charity. Something of what Gaspode had said about knowing her had prickled at my brain. "So, I've heard of Corporal Nobby Nobbs. Who's this other fellow that Gaspode was talking about?"

"Constable Visit," she answered. "He's the one who named me. I deliver his pamphlets to him when they come out of the printers. And sometimes when ships from Omnia bring new ones I help him with them."

"I see." My brain was putting together facts, but I wanted to make sure. "How did you meet them?"

Charity's eyes looked distant for a moment. "It's, well... it's a bit of a blur to me. I remember... when I was little, just livin' on the streets alone, I was a match girl."

And that did it. My brain put the facts together on just who this girl was, and why she was special.

I didn't have to ask her to continue, Charity did on her own. "I'm not sure of my birthday, so I don't know how old I actually am. But back about six winters ago, I was out on Hogswatchnight. It was cold and snowing and I was sick and hungry. I went to the tobacco shop on Money Trap Lane and laid down at the steps because I was feeling sleepy." She looked up at me. "I... I don't think I was going to wake up either. I just remember it being so cold that I thought I'd sleep forever. But I remember... someone in a Hogfather suit. He picked me up and handed me to Constable Visit. And they took me on to the Watch House and gave me food and hot cocoa."

I nodded. "Awfully kind of them. And that's how you got to know them?"

"Yes. It's just... sometimes I'm not sure I was supposed to."

"Funny how our lives turn out." I said that, knowing that she had a reason for feeling that way, and realizing why Mrs. Proust had considered there to be something "off" about Charity. She _was_ supposed to sleep forever that Hogswatchnight. The Narrativium of the Discworld was striking yet again, bringing about the story of the poor Little Match Girl fated to die in the snow.

And so she had died. And her death was to be attended to by, well, Death. Tall fellow, black robes, scythe so sharp it could cut sound, TALKS LIKE THIS.

It was a special Hogswatch that night, though. Death was filling in for the Hogfather - the Discworld's counterpart to old Kris Kringle - and he had his own ideas about how the story should end. He decided to give the poor girl a present, the greatest present he could ever give.

A future.

And so the Little Match Girl lived.

And now... now she was at my side, helping me to recover my tools and protect her home from whatever threats this growing temporal energy posed.

Some presents are so great that they go beyond their recipients to benefit others.

I was diverted from my thoughts on the matter by the results of my sonic screwdriver scan. "Oi, that's not good."

"What?"

"The temporal energy is growing stronger," I said. "There's an open time tear somewhere in Ankh-Morpork. And it's _growing_."

Charity was quick on the uptake. "And that could destroy the city."

I nodded stiffly. "The city, yes. And if it's not stopped... it'll grow until the quantum variable field, I mean, the magic field around the Disc is entirely destabilized." I was answered by a quick intake of breath. These were stakes I was familiar with though. "Ready to help me save the world, Little Match Girl?"

The reply was immediate. Charity nodded and said, "Yes."

"Then let's go find Mister Pincher," I said. "I need to get my TARDIS back."

* * *

We found Mister Pincher easily enough, with my sonic screwdriver locking onto the TARDIS remote. We were around Sator Square when we found the gentleman standing in an alleyway and looking at what I presumed were the day's gains. Standing beside him was a tall man who, if not for his brown hair and sullen expression, might have passed for Carrot.

A third man was passed out on the ground between them.

"Now, what did we do wrong this time?", the older man said, clearly repeating a long-used line.

"Not hit 'im so hard," the apprentice mumbled.

"You'll never make it in the Guild if you hurt people, Bumper. Guild policy is clear about that sort of thing."

"M'kay."

Sharing a glance with Charity, I watched them check the man's pockets while Pincher took out another note like the one he left me. I had no money on my person to buy back my TARDIS remote, so I was going to have to be sly. I pocketed the sonic screwdriver and called out, "Hello there!"

The two men looked up. Pincher clearly recognized me. "Well, I see you're up and about. I do apologize about Bumper's knocks, he's a street boy, still learning to hold back."

"Oh yes, perfectly understandable. I must say, as alley assaults go you Thieves' Guild men are very professional about it, jolly good show and all." I didn't allow any edge to come to my smile. "Is my locket okay?"

"Oh, of course. Come to get your coverage for the year?"

"If only," I sighed. "Unfortunately I'd already had a run in with some other thieves. Unlicensed ones, very nasty. Had a Slabbed up troll who wanted to smash my head in."

Pincher shook his head. "I know the ones you're talking about, sir. The Westerly Gang. I do so apologize about that, sir, we try to keep the unlicensed crime down but some always slip through the cracks."

"Things happen, can't be helped. It'll be a short bit before I can get you any compensation for the locket or the protection license, but I'd like to see my locket. Sentimental bit, you understand."

Pincher gave me a look of some healthy suspicion. "Aye, you wouldn't be looking to run off with it, would you? You look like a clever gent."

"Oh, Gods forbid I run with it, sir," I answered truthfully. "How about you have Bumper stand behind me? He can whack me on the head of I try to run past him with it. He gives a good thumping, that boy."

Pincher nodded and gestured to Bumper. The large man nodded and walked past us to stand guard behind me. Pincher took a knife out and held it in his right hand as he presented the TARDIS remote with his left. "Here you go, gent. You'll see that there's no damage whatsoever to it. And I can be generous in giving you a week to come up with a few dollars toward your protection plan before I turn it in."

I held a hand out and he let me have it for a moment, although he kept himself ready for trouble; this was Ankh-Morpork after all, even if he was a very nice thief. It made me feel a tad guilty for what I was going to do.

"Oh yes. Very good shape. You're to be commended, Mister Pincher, and I'll make sure you're duly compensated." I took in a breath. "Now let me see if it works."

"Works...?"

As Pincher said that, I permitted myself a sad smile. "Sorry, city to save and all that." I'm pretty sure he heard me as the TARDIS materialized around us.

Charity looked on in shock at the control room. "Is that... more of that magic? You teleported us somewhere?"

"No, this is my TARDIS," I answered as I went for the controls. "Dimensionally transcendental field. That means it's bigger on the inside." There was thumping at the locked door. I brought the TARDIS about fifteen feet into the air above where we were and stopped it. From the controls I went to my storage bin near the door and rummaged through it. "Okay, I know you're in here, I know," I muttered as I went through little souvenirs. "Ah, there we go." I held up a bag and opened it, revealing gold ingots.

"Gold?" Charity looked at me curiously. "How much gold do you have?"

"As much as I need," I answered. I threw open the door and looked down at the bewildered Pincher and angry Bumper. "Sorry for that sir, but to prove I'm a man of my word, here's some gold!" I dropped the bag down. Unfortunately I misread the downward trajectory and the gold hit poor Bumper in the head. "Oops... sorry about that! That should be about six pounds of gold ingots, Mister Pincher, I'm sure that'll cover my protection license for the year. Keep the change sir and may you have a pleasant day!"

By that point, Pincher had retrieved the gold and was looking at me with surprise. He gave a wave to me and answered, "Sure there, gent! You gave me a scare there, though!"

"Sorry for that!"

After I closed the door I faced Charity again. "As much as you need? How...?"

"There are worlds outside of the Disc, you see. Many with high technology. And some have matter-replication technology, they can make gold out of thin air... well, more like out of cheap material stock re-organized at the atomic level. It's very complicated." With the TARDIS at the altitude of three hundred feet I began a wide-range scan. "Looks like the disturbance isn't far from the University. Hold on, I'm going to shift us over there."

The TARDIS shook a little as I settled it over near the University. "Quantum instability around the university, oi, never fun," I muttered while flipping switches. "But I've got us settled."

"So what do I need to do now?", she asked.

"Stay with me, be ready to help if I ask for it, that sort of thing." I went toward the door.

We opened it and emerged into an alley. I drew out the sonic screwdriver again to begin scanning. As I moved it around to get a fix, I spied a lone figure sitting at the side of the alleyway. He rose up and glared at me, and it wasn't a pretty sight, since he only had one eye to do the glaring. Someone had cut his face up badly. A knife appeared in his hand.

As I reached for my sonic disruptor, Charity saw him. "That's ol' Andy Shank."

"The football hooligan?", I asked. I extended my arm and...

...took a whiff of corruption.

_Yes, you will be mine. And we will burn the witches, they will all _burn_!_

In the moment of surprise at hearing the Cunning Man, the possessed Andy lunged at me with the knife. I shifted out of the way, but with the ghost driving his body the scarred hooligan was a lot faster than I imagined. His free hand grabbed my wrist and twisted until the pain caused me to drop the disruptor. I was forced around and pushed against the wall.

_You will be mine!_

The stench grew suffocating in my head. I could feel the Cunning Man starting to hammer his way in and, with Andy's body under his control, I couldn't get the leverage to wrench away.

_I see all the worlds beyond this! I see names... Korra, Molly, Madoka, Homura... and they are all witches! The witches will burn! I will see that they will all burn!_

I was screaming at this point, creating a shell around my mind to keep the ghost out as much as I could. His very touch felt like hot poison in my brain, an ice pick of corruption trying to slam through my skull.

There was a burst of energy from behind me that knocked Andy's body away. Charity took my arm with one hand, the other gripping the disruptor. That was the second time she'd saved me with it.

At that point I tried to move. My body resisted. The shock of the attempted possession had left me paralyzed for the moment. A clearly fatal moment as the Cunning Man stood Andy up from the ground and came at us again. _The girl will burn!_

The ground abruptly opened up beneath us. We fell into darkness, save for a single green light hovering to the side. "Come!", a voice hissed. "We have to get to the safety of the Unreal Estates, it'll be hard for him to find us there!"

My legs were finally working beneath me, so I was able to get to my feet and follow the green light. I was running in something and given we were underground I didn't want to know what. The dark tunnels stretched on, part of the tremendous underground world of Ankh-Morpork, a city that was literally built on top of itself and had been for centuries.

We had gone far enough to be led into a door, within which was a living space that was not too large, but cozy. A single figure stood before us, in full coverings and a helmet. As the figure removed those garments my eyes scanned the room. This confirmed for me that I had found whom I was looking for.

A woman with whitening hair looked at me, her face still showing some youth of the mind despite the wrinkles on her face. "Well, Doctor, you seem to stay in trouble."

"Trouble has a way of following me. A drawback to being a Time Lord, I'm afraid," I answered. I looked to the woman's staff, which had a noticeable lack of a knob on the end.

"Well, now that you're back..." She looked at me and her mouth hung open. "Oh dear."

"Yes?" I had a sudden realization of just what was going on.

"You look so... that suit..." She put a hand to her mouth. "I can't believe it. This is..."

"...the first time I've met you, yes," I replied. "But clearly not the first for you. The joy of timestreams."

"Yes," she agreed. The woman looked at Charity. "Hello young lady. She's awfully young to be one of your Companions."

"We just met today," I explained. "This is Charity."

"And who's she?", Charity asked. "And what does she mean about timestreams and meeting you and all of that? I thought you said you were new to the city?"

"I am. But some time in the past I wasn't," I answered. "It's... it's hard to explain my dear. Still, to finish the introductions, Charity..." I looked to our rescuer and held a hand out. "This is Eskarina Smith, the only female wizard in the history of the Disc and a capable time traveler."

"Pleased to meet you, young Charity," Eskarina said, curtseying a little and getting one in return. "My, you are an interesting child. Quite a... unique aura." Eskarina looked to me. "And since he probably hasn't fully introduced himself... this is the Doctor, a Time Lord of Gallifrey, who travels through the six dimensions of space-time in his TARDIS seeing the sights and, on occasion, tipping the balance of events so that history doesn't turn out quite so horrible." Esk allowed herself an appreciative chuckle. "Sadly, we can't have a very nice conversation because, as the Doctor will later say to me from his own perspective, that would be _spoilers_."

Charity gave me a bewildered look. "You... travel time?"

"And space. Six dimensions," I admitted.

"So... you could go back and find my mum?"

Esk and I exchanged looks. "I... can see about it, yes," I conceded. "I can't promise you anything more than meeting her and seeing what she's like, though. Anything more and I interfere with the timeline. I could cause something very nasty. Bat things eating people, that sort of thing."

"Reality has many ways of reacting to something causing a paradox. That's one of the more unpleasant varieties." Eskarina reached over and took a sip of what looked like tea. "Would you like some? I promise I kept down the rancid yak butter. Sweeper's taste in tea is one of his less endearing qualities."

"Of course you'd know Lu-Tze," I said. "And I suspect I will."

"Spoilers," Esk said, giving me a wink.

I drew in a sigh. "This is why it's such an advantage to not time travel, Charity," I said to my new friend. "No need to worry about timestreams not matching up."

"I wish we could chat more, but aside from a quick round of tea I'm afraid we're running out of time." Esk waved a hand in the air. Realizing what she was doing, I took out the sonic and set it to scan. Both of our methods showed, I presumed, the same result. "You can see it? The tear is getting bigger."

"I've got equipment aboard the TARDIS to deal with these things."

"I know. But this is different. Look at the third-dimensional elements."

I did so. And I let my jaw drop. "They're... moving... it shouldn't work that way."

"But it is. I fear something may have already slipped through from the Dungeon Dimensions." Esk picked her staff up. "And I think I know who it's bonded to."

She looked into my eyes and I let out a breath, and then a groan. _Of course_. With all that rotten luck, why wouldn't it turn out that way?

"Rincewind," I said. "It's linked to Rincewind."

"It might be how he was shifted to one of the Earths in the first place," Esk agreed.

"And when I brought him back, it triggered the rift to start forming. Oi, that's... rather aggravating."

"Yes." Esk looked to me and smiled. "So, Doctor. Shall we go save the world?"

I put my sonic in my pocket. "Yes, I think we shall."

"Just like old times, then. For me, anyway."

As we left, I couldn't help but wonder just what we'd end up doing in my future. But it wasn't something I could dwell upon. World to save first and all that.

* * *

Esk had a direct path taking her to the University from her underground sanctuary. Charity and I followed her closely, my hand holding Charity's to make sure she didn't stray. "I thought women couldn't be wizards?", she asked.

"There were some special circumstances," Esk answered from ahead of us. "But it was mostly impatience."

I smirked. "In this case I think it's safe to say haste didn't make waste." I couldn't see, but I got the impression she grinned.

We finally emerged from the underground in an old abandoned building at the fringe of the Unreal Estates. This let us into the environs of the Unseen University, although we still had to navigate the city streets. There was a growing crowd outside of it, held back by... yes, the Watch. Specifically...

"Hello Sergeant," Charity said amiably.

I had already guessed who it was given the massive crossbow in his arms and the fact he was a troll. Sergeant Detritus looked at Charity and nodded. "Hey dere, Charity. You doin' good?"

"I'm making my way, counting the years until I can take the King's Shilling," she answered. "This is my friend, the Doctor. And Eskarina Smith, she's a wizard."

Detritus looked over me and then Esk. It wasn't so warm yet that his troll brain was being unduly effected, although he needed truly cold temperatures to exercise his full intelligence. "Thought ladies couldn't be wizards," he finally said. "Dat's a good staff. But where's da knob?"

"It ruined the balance of the whole thing," Esk answered. "Sergeant, I need to get into the University. Something dreadful is going on."

"I know dat. Mister Vimes sent me down, said 'Keep people out of de University. De wizards are up to bloody nonsense again', he says."

"It's rather more nasty than that," I said. "There's a temporal tear walking around in there, and we need to stop it."

"Ah. Dat sounds bad." He looked from me to Esk and back to me. I could almost see the gears in his brain turning. "Lady's a wizard, she says she goin' in I won't stop dat."

"Thank you, Sergeant."

He gave us room to maneuver around him. When we entered the University grounds, we found student wizards were fleeing the main building. Esk held out her staff to get one's attention. "What's going on?"

"It's all gone crazy! Rincewind's... he's... he's _fighting_ the senior wizards!"

Esk and I exchanged glances. "That does not sound good," I remarked.

"Something's taken him," she said. "Something did come through."

We went through the student wizards and to the building. A couple of the bledlows got in our way. "No civ..." They saw Esk and paled. "Oh, Miss Smith."

"Omory, Nobbs," she said simply. "They're with me."

The readings led us to the Great Hall of the University. Debris was present and there was a great deal of shouting and cursing inside. We stepped over one fallen wizard who was definitely on the portly side. "The Chair of Indefinite Studies," Esk said.

"They're not exactly built for fighting," Charity noted.

"Wizards don't fight." Esk kept her staff up. "At least not like you're thinking."

A few of the senior wizards were still on their feet, in particular one particulalry noticable fellow with a non-standard pointy hat and a voice that made the Hall vibrate. "Whoever you are, you will depart my wizard's body at once!" Archchancellor Ridcully held a hand out and absorbed a blast of lighting with it. "He may be a cowardly, useless little scamp, but he's still a faculty member of _my_ university and I won't stand for this!"

"I don't think that's going to work, sir!", a second, younger voice called out. I caught a glimpse of glasses. It was undoubtedly Ponder Stibbons.

"Archchancellor!" Esk got to him first. Beyond us, Rincewind was turning away again and gesturing toward the top of the Hall.

Ridcully turned and faced us. "Ah, Miss Smith. Good to have you. Do you know anything about this? And who is this chap?"

"This is the Doctor. He is a friend of mine..."

I was raising my sonic as she gave a quick explanation. I focused instead on the scanning. There was something about the energy field around Rincewind that puzzled me, although it was still clear that he was the source of the rift. "The temporal tear is stabilizing. I'd say something wants to come through."

"Yes." Rincewind's voice was echoed by the entity inside. "My people have waited so long for a new home. We will not be denied by you again, Doctor."

Esk turned her head. "Do you know them?"

"Not yet, apparently," I murmured. I had, indeed, no recollection of stopping something from beyond normal space from coming into real space.

And then the thought occurred to me. Namely, that _I_ wasn't the one who thwarted them.

"Who are you?", I asked. "I'm afraid that I thwart so many invasions these days that I can't remember them all."

Rincewind looked at me with curiosity. "You are not him. You are not the Doctor."

"Well, I'm not the only one," I retorted. "And you are..."

And like that, the answer came to me.

"The Gelth," I finished.

"And what are these Gelth things, and what do they want with my university?", Ridcully demanded.

"They lost their bodies in the Great Time War between the Time Lords and Daleks," I answered. "They were reduced to gaseous form. But I'm not... _oh_." I quickly filled that gap. "They had to retreat back through the Cardiff Rift. An explosion caused some quantum instabilities, nothing too major, but it shifted them deeper into the interdimensional spaces. And there... they changed."

"There are things there. Horrible things," the Gelth inside Rincewind said. "But we are free. And we do not need your bodies to be dead to hold you. This world will be our's."

"No, it won't," I responded. "You can't just take any world you please."

"You are too late, false-Doctor. We're already here."

My sonic whirred as the temporal energies spiked. The air above Rincewind split open into the form of a rift, one that blew open the rift and revealed the sky above, growing dark with crackling energies.

And not just any rift.

"A Crack," I muttered.

"A Crack in the Universe?", Esk asked. "Another one? The last time we..." She stopped at that point.

"Well, it's nice to know I'll run into more," I deadpanned. "Although given their six-dimensional nature, it could be one I've already seen."

"I suggest you focus on this one," Ponder was quick to point out.

Wispy forms of energy began pouring out. Esk and Ridcully brought their staves up and created a protective field just in time, keeping the wisps off of us. They began flying around and finding the bodies of the fallen head wizards. Others went beyond.

The Chair of Indefinite Studies rose behind us, a vacant look in this face. "This body... resists."

"Depart my faculty this instant!," Ridcully shouted, his voice loud enough to rattle ear drums. He pointed his staff and cast an energy bolt that smacked the body.

I saw more forms coming out. All of Ankh-Morpork was going to get possessed if we didn't hurry. "Archchancellor! Esk! We need to get outside the University and bring up a containment field of some kind! They'll take over the whole city if we don't hurry!"

"We have wards in place around the University," Stibbons suggested. "It'll only take me a few moments to bring them up."

I looked at Ridcully. "You actually planned for something bad to happen in the University?"

"Oh, that's not it at all," he answered. "They're actually made to keep other things _out_. Mister Stibbons and I shall have to tinker with them."

"Come along, gentlemen!" Esk shouted. The field around us was mostly from her magic. Concentration had locked her face into a single expression. "I could use some help, Doctor!"

I pulled out the sonic disruptor and quickly keyed it to take in the data from my sonic. I raised it and activated it, creating a field effect that reinforced Esk's magic-fueled protective field. The others backed out of the Great Hall behind us.

"They're coming!", Charity shouted when we left the Hall. Around us, various figures - bledlows, staff, some student wizards - were suddenly looking at us with stone faces and advancing. They had been taken by the Gelth.

I took out the sonic and handed my disruptor to Charity. "Same setting, clear us a path!"

She nodded enthusiastically and went to work. Stibbons, being more the thinker and writer, was contributing warning calls, and Ridcully had taken to what I supposed was a kind of force magic that repelled people from us while we retreated. Once we were at the gates Stibbons brought his hand up to a sigil etched into the stone, by which they had placed a kind of face. "Hex, I'm altering the protective field to focus inward. Access your emergency field until we sort this out."

"Processing," a voice said from the face mask.

I turned my head and added, "And while you're at it, Hex, calculate the exact range of quantum instability from that crack, we'll need that to seal it."

"Results will be too complex for basic speech..."

Since I wasn't needed anymore for the field against the Gelth, I turned my sonic onto Hex's receiver. It amused me that it could work with a computer that had, at its core, a bunch of ants with bees and honeycomb for storage media, but computers are computers, and a sonic screwdriver is a sonic screwdriver. I established a data link rather easily. Stibbons watched me use it and glance at the display. "Is that some sort of magic wand?", he asked, almost suspicious with his tone. "Because..."

"It's not magic, Mister Stibbons. Well... not magic as you know it, just a whole lot of exotic energy manipulation and..." I saw his expression and sighed. "And quantum. Let's just stop at quantum, we don't have the time for more. Anyway, there we go, full readings. How's that field coming along?"

An entire group of Gelth surged overhead and into the gathering crowd at the gate. They began entering an assortment of bodies, which lurched our way.

"Almost there," Ridcully insisted. "Blasted wards. Stibbons, I told you that the sigils were out of place!"

"Sorry, Archchancellor, but the field wasn't met to face inward."

Detritus brought his crossbow up toward the oncominng Gelth. I waved at him. "No, Sergeant! They're possessed! The Gelth will just find new bodies!" It was regrettable that he didn't have a stun setting on the Piecemaker. As the name implies, it's meant for turning things into smaller things.

Come to think of it... there really aren't any "stun settings" with trolls period.

"Dat not good, can't wop 'em on da hed eider. Dat'd be police brutality so long as dey's not trolls."

Charity was on the job with the sonic disruptor, throwing the affected, and some innocent bystanders, back with a broad blast. "I've got the hang of this, Doctor, I can hold this."

"By Io, Stibbons, did you really have to put that extra key..."

"Yes, sir, otherwise there could be accidental activations."

Esk had extended her field to protect Detritus and a couple of other Watchmen who had arrived, requiring me to give it a little reinforcement. But it was faltering, and Esk was clearly running out of strength. "We're almost there," I assured her.

There was a sparking in the air. It fizzled.

"Stibbons! The blasted field's not activating!"

"I'm not sure what's wrong, sir, I know all of the sigils are..."

Exasperated, Ridcully smacked the sigil beside us with his staff. It began to glow with octarine light. The eighth color - the Color of Magic, native only to the Disc and its quantum variability field - flew along the walls girding the University property, lighting up further sigils. Octarine energy flowed skyward and inward until it met at the top of the Tower of Art, creating a very tall dome in the middle of Ankh-Morpork.

The Gelth began to slam into it. They came out the other end. We were suddenly being rained on with weasels, parrots, and a couple of marsupials. A kangeroo landed in a newly-opened space in the crowd and bounced away.

"It's not supposed to do that, is it?", I asked Ridcully.

"Well, sir, magic is magic," he answered. "Best we can do in a hurry. Haste doesn't make for good, orderly magic. And at least they're _whole_. Doesn't always happen with the wild magic."

I checked on Charity. The possessed men were down. And the sonic disruptor's effects would make sure the Gelth inside stayed down too.

Esk leaned heavily on her staff and released the field. "I keep forgetting how old I am," she mumbled. "It's a good thing you're so young, otherwise the teasing would be unbearable."

I let myself smile at that. "Ah, well, I shall make up for it later, if you prefer. Now..."

The crowd parted before us. And for good reason, given the phalanx of armed Watchmen moving through. At their lead was a stern, middle-aged man with a scar on ihs face and a look of solid authority. I knew immediately who I was dealing with and nodded. "Commander Vimes, good afternoon."

Sir Samuel Vimes, Mister Vimes to his friends, and His Grace the Duke of Ankh to people who liked to annoy him, looked me up and down with a stern eye. "And who are you?", he demanded.

"He's with us, Commander Vimes," Ridcully replied.

"Oh really? Where's his pointy hat?"

"I have a fez," I said. "I'm just not wearing it at the moment, Commander."

"He said he was a Doctor, sir," Detritus spoke. "I don't know what he's Doctrin' in, though."

Behind us the Crack was glowing brighter and beginning to lengthen. "It's growing," I remarked. "And if it grows enough it's going to take out that field. Frankly, it might destroy the whole city."

"Wouldn't that ruin those Gelth fellows' plans?"

"I don't think they're controlling the Crack, Archchancellor," I replied. "Not entirely. They're simply exploiting it."

"And just what in the Gods' name are the Gelth?", Vimes demanded.

"A race from another cosmos that lost their bodies, Commander. And now they want your's. All of your bodies, that is." I watched the Gelth gather inside the field. They were possessing those who were still inside the University.

Rincewind's figure stepped up to the open gate and stopped at the octarine field. "You will not stop us this way," he remarked.

"There has to be another way," I replied. "Automaton bodies that need intelligence, something like that. I can find you empty droid bodies or get assistance from the Geth, you don't have to take these people."

There was a false grin on Rincewind's face. "Could you truly make something like that for all of us?"

"In time, but..."

"That is _not good enough_. We have waited for too long. We will not let the Time Lords dictate our fates again! Here we will be safe, and here we will stay!"

I looked up and saw the Crack grow more. It would be splitting the octarine field soon. I had the tools to seal it from the main spatial dimensions, but the octarine field was in the way. And if it went down, the Gelth would go around possessing everyone. I needed another solution.

"Now see here, this is entirely...!"

Leaving Ridcully and Vimes to growl and fuss at the Gelth, I leaned over to my future compatriot. "Esk, a step back please."

She followed me to what I hoped was out of earshot, or at least out of earshot when considering the voice of Mustrum Ridcully. "You have a plan," Esk said, smiling weakly. "You've got a good one too. You've always got that twinkle in your eye when..."

"It's something of one, anyway," I answered. "The Gelth have been altered by prolonged exposure to the energies of the lower subspatial dimensions. Coming through the Crack has given them a bond with it. That means there's some way we can draw them back in."

"Unfortunately the Crack is sending energy out, if it was pulling energy in I could see..." Esk's eyes widened. "Of course. You're going to introduce a flow inversion in it, aren't you?"

"Exactly. We prod the Crack to shift its energy flow. It won't last long before the natural energy flows overpower the inversion, but it should last long enough to suck the Gelth right back in."

"Oh, you and your brilliant plans." Esk's eyes twinkled. "But how are we going to cause an inversion? We can't get to it from all of those Gelth in the way."

"That's the _fun_ part," I replied. I reached into my pocket and brought out my TARDIS remote. The eyes of the crowds, and of the Watch, turned as the TARDIS materialized. I went to the door. "Of course, it'd be useful if Jan and Cami weren't in Pseudopolis Yard. I need to..."

Esk, as tired as she looked, went straight past my control console and to the stairs leading down. I followed her to the underside of the control room where I kept my equipment. By the time my feet left the final step she was already going through the equipment I used for Crack-sealing. "Here!" She thrust them in my arms.

"I say, it's bigger on the inside!", Ridcully shouted from the door.

"It's a pocket dimension, sir," Stibbons said. "A rather complete one."

"I hate magic," Vimes added. "So he's one of your's?"

"No, I don't think so," Stibbons replied. "I've never seen him before."

By this point Esk had pulled out a few other pieces. "Ah, here we go." She held up one of the items. "A quantum flow regulator, and a temporal flux generator. Should create a quantum pulse field that would instigate the inversion, right?"

"Um, yes." I put the other items down, brought out my sonic, and got to work with the necessary modifications.

"How are you going to..."

Vimes was speaking again. "If he's not one of your's, and he certainly doesn't sound like a bloody Foureckser, and I know that Brazeneck hasn't graduated anyone yet due to that incident with the giant chicken, then he's a fake, right?"

"Well, clearly."

"Does that mean I'm going to have to deal with you nailing him to the Brass Bridge?"

Much to my chagrin, Ridcully wasn't quick to answer. Stibbons provided one. "Well, sir, if he saves the Disc from that rift, that clearly counts as a service of benefit to wizardry and mankind. I'm sure the University Council would see fit to bestow a degree of some sort on such a man, should the Archchancellor be willing." That was unsurprising, since Stibbons was half the Council by himself.

"Oh, yes, yes, definitely."

"Just so long as it's not like the last time you did it. Even our Igor couldn't put the man back together."

"I really didn't need to hear that!", I bellowed.

Esk smirked. "As I was saying..."

"We're not going to enter that field, of course," I said. "Can't, not with the Gelth, and the TARDIS might protect them from the inversion flow if they got inside. No, I have a different idea..." I looked up and shouted, "Commander Vimes! I could use your help!"

Vimes got to the stairs and asked, "Oh really?"

"Please retrieve those items..." I pointed to the two devices that I had long used to seal Cracks. "...and take them to the door. They will be essential. And when you get back up there, please ask Sergeant Detritus to unload that crossbow of his. I'm going to have some new ammunition for him."

Esk looked at me with surprise. "My Gods... but he's a troll and in this temperature, I doubt he can do the calculations to aim right, and the device will have to strike the Crack exactly!"

"I know." I finished what I was doing and picked up the new compound device. "Thankfully, it's easy to introduce complex mathematics to a troll. And all I need is..."

We retrieved that last item and returned to the main floor. I saw that the Crack was within feet of the octarine field. It was already starting to spark and waver. "We've only got a couple of minutes. Sergeant!" I emerged from the TARDIS and motioned to Detritus. "I'm not that tall, Sergeant, can you stoop over a bit? I need to see that clockwork helmet of your's."

"Don't want you touchin' dis helmet," Detritus protested. "It a gift from a good friend."

"I know. But this is to save the Disc, Sergeant. I won't hurt it. In fact, I'll make it work better than your friend ever imagined it could."

Detritus looked to Vimes, who nodded slowly. He got to a knee and lowered his head enough that I was able to attach a device to the input vent for his helmet. I hit a button. Frost clearly formed in the air around it.

In Detritus' eyes I could almost see thoughts crystallizing. The device was a modified anti-fire tool I'd found, creating a strong thermal dampening field that lowered temperatures to resist flammability. Now the cold field it was producing was spreading to cover Detritus' head, and by doing so it lowered the temperature of his brain. The impure silicon there would definitely become more conductive.

"I see what you need now, Doctor," Detritus said, his speech pattern becoming more... refined, I guess you could say. "You need me to fire this device into the center of the crack in the air?"

"Yes," I replied.

"I see. Give me a moment." Detritus fixed the flow inverter into Piecemaker's firing string. He brought it up as I raised my sonic and took about five seconds to aim.

"Detritus, please hurry," Vimes said, noticing as I did that the field was starting to shift more.

"It's going to fail any moment," Stibbons confirmed.

"This is a very complex calculation, Commander. I am sorry," Detritus replied. "Wait a moment... there."

He pulled the trigger. The moment the inverter was in the air, I held a button and my sonic whirred to life.

The inverter passed through the field without issue - I had taken suitable precautions - and sailed for the center of the Crack.

The octarine field gave a final sputter of light and failed. The Gelth surged out and went for, well, everyone.

"Doctor!", Charity called out.

"Any moment," I answered, even as the first Gelth began to flow into the Crowd. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Vimes spasm - good luck to _that_ Gelth, given Vimes' record when it came to possessions of his body - and Charity cry out as one slammed into her.

There was a sudden burst of light from the Crack. Screams echoed from both sides of the Gate. "No!", the Gelth inside Rincewind screamed. "We won't go back! Please, Doctor, don't make us...!"

"I'm sorry," I answered. "You should have accepted my offer."

There was a laugh. "It doesn't matter! It's all going to fall! In this place we might have been safe, but it's all falling! The breaks are growing! And you... you'll never stop it! It's all going to fall and you'll never stop waaaagghhhhohmygodswhatwasthat?!" Rincewind fell onto his knees and panted, looking at everything with, well, even more terror than was usual for Rincewind. The Gelth - now more energy than gas - was sucked out of him by the power of the Crack.

Other Gelth forms suffered the same, coming out of every body still inside the University and many outside of it. The blue-ish white forms flailed and twisted in mid-air, but it did them no good. The inversion had turned the Crack into an energy vacuum, and they were so tied to it that their energy was feeling the greatest reaction.

I watched every last Gelth form get sucked into the Crack and turned to the others. "Commander Vimes, Archchancellor Ridcully, Mister Stibbons, please come with me!" I looked to Charity. "You too, young lady."

Neither man was well-disposed to taking orders. But neither were they fools; I was clearly the expert here, and my authority rested entirely on the fact it was not authority, simply a proven expert asking two authority figures and men of great respect and admiration to assist me in my duties, which they graciously granted.

I led them into the TARDIS and handed Vimes and Ridcully the two tools for Crack-sealing. I would have preferred observing myself, but I was going to be too busy piloting the TARDIS and directing Charity and Stibbons to help. "Remember gentlemen, do not let your beams cross each other's."

"Aye, no crossing streams," Ridcully declared. "It always makes a mess."

I gave a quick nod, ignoring the innuendo. I saw Vimes was eyeing the quantum field manipulation emitter warily. "I'm afraid you can't just arrest a Crack, Commander Vimes. But this will do the trick."

"You'd be surprised at what I can arrest," Vimes muttered. He didn't know that I couldn't, I was well aware that Sam Vimes could and would arrest anything that gave him reason to.

"And make sure to secure yourselves so you don't get pulled out." Even as I gave that warning, remembering what happened to DiNozzo the last time, I rushed to the controls. "Esk, I need you on the Vortex Regulator," I said to her upon entering.

"Of course you do," she replied, taking up position beside it.

"MIster Stibbons, watch this... and this... if this turns yellow..." I gave him directions and then Charity, who was thankfully tall enouh to reach the necessary controls. I felt thankful the Crack was so close to the ground; I didn't have a full group of pilots available like I did last time I did this in mid-air. I scrambled between two stations as I brought the TARDIS into the air and closer to the Crack.

Ridcully and Vimes were good shots, and that was why I picked them. Granted, Ridcully's girth made for a tighter fit than I'd had with DiNozzo, but Vimes had just enough room to use the device I'd given him. The twin beams of light converged on the growing Crack. What seemed like a minute passed before I saw Esk begin to twist the regulator to close entirely. I watched from the controls as Ridcully and Vimes stepped back, just in time to avoid the worst of the burst of air that came from the Crack shifting out of our the three main spaital dimensions.

We landed the TARDIS at the Gate and stepped out into the dusk light of Ankh-Morpork (such as it was). Esk and I looked up toward the sky, my sonic and her staff raised. "It worked," she said.

"Yes."

"So the Crack is gone?", Stibbons asked.

"From the main three dimensions, yes," I replied. "But you may want to be careful if you start playing around in the lower dimensions. It's still there."

"I see. I shall definitely consider that with our studies."

Ridcully put a hand on my shoulder. "Good show, lad. Got a good head on your shoulders. Ever think about wearing a pointy hat?"

"Well, now that you mention it..." I stepped into the TARDIS and returned with my fez on. "Doesn't have a point, but it does have a tassel."

"Oh, that's one of those Klatchian things, yes? Never cared much for it, looks like you've got a thimble on your head."

"Respectfully, Archchancellor... Fezzes are cool."

"I shouldn't argue with him about it, Archchancellor," Esk warned. "He has a bizarre attachment to that bloody fez of his. The same thing with that boring blue suit."

"Oi, don't diss the threads."

That made Esk laugh. It was a hearty laugh, and one that I knew I'd probably hear quite a bit in the coming years. "It was good to see you again, Doctor. Surprising that this is our first meeting, but it feels right." She sighed. "Well, I suppose you'll be seeing me again, although I wonder if I'll see you."

"Oh, i'm sure I'll be back at times," I promised. "It goes in both directions."

'Yes." Esk let out a breath. "Well, I'm certainly not as young as I was. I think it's time I went and laid down. Before I go though..." She stepped up to me and lifted her head. When her hands touched my cheeks I let her pull my head down. I had thought she had intention of a kiss or something like that, but instead she put her mouth next to my ear. She whispered a name. When I brought my head back and showed confusion. "You won't understand the significance of that now," she sighed. "But you will one day. Goodbye Doctor." She nodded and, with a single word, faded from view.

"Always a strange one, Miss Smith," Ponder Stibbons remarked. "Aside from old Simon she hasn't done much to interact with anyone else."

"Doctor."

I looked past Stibbons and saw Vimes walk up to me. Carrot was at one side and on the other was someone I didn't recognize, and who was clearly not in the Watch. His dark dress made me think he was an Assassin at first, but I realized it wasn't nearly black enough for them. "Yes, Commander?"

"Can I see that locket of your's? The one you held when you made your pocket whatever appear?"

At the limit of my hearing I heard a crossbow bolt being locked into place. I couldn't see if it was Vimes or the other gentleman, but I knew what it meant. And I knew there was no way I'd get the TARDIS in place before I took a crossbow bolt to something sensitive, like... well, any fleshy piece of me.

Warily I held out the locket. The man in the dark suit looked to Vimes and nodded.

Vimes rolled his eyes and drew in a breath. And then, without warning, he promptly snatched it from my hand.

At that moment, I looked past the dark-suited man and saw Mister Pincher and Bumper standing amongst the crowd. Pincher was looking at me with an expression that almost shouted apologies along the lines of "Sorry, not my doing, out of my hands".

"The Thieves' Guild is accusing you of unlicensed thievery, sir," Vimes said.

I gawked at him. "But it's my property, that's blood rid..."

"And I can't have you running off with that magic box of your's before we get this settled," Vimes continued. "If it were up to me I'd let you and your lady friends go and call it a night, but the Thieves' Guild's already gone to Lord Vetinari. He wants to see you. Right now."

"Am I under arrest, Commander?", I asked pointedly.

"Do you need to be?", Vimes asked. "Because I can arrange that if you want. Refusing the city's tyrant certainly falls under the Being Bloody Stupid Act."

For a moment I just stared at him. And then I yielded to the inevitable. "Off to the Patrician's Palace then, I suppose. Always wanted to see what the Oblong Office was like."

* * *

At the waiting room for the Oblong Office I was reunited with Janias and Camilla while Vimes went in to give his report to Vetinari. They looked well enough and stood in the company of two female Watch officers with Captain ranks on their uniforms. Given one's blonde hair and the other's boyishly-short dark hair and, yes, I saw the tipped points of fangs in her teeth, their identities were clear to me even before Camilla introduced them as Angua and Sally. I gave a little bow and introduced myself and Charity, who had opted to accompany me. "This is Charity, a well-spirited young lady who helped a doddering newcomer to the city she found unconscious in an alley."

"Thank you for helping him, Charity." Janias' smile was full of her usual mischief. "He usually needs it."

"He's going to need a lot of it if the Thieves' Guild have it in their heads he's an unlicensed thief," Charity pointed out.

I noticed Sally was looking at me with intense curiosity, the kind you usually didn't want from a vampire. Discworld vampires were, if I may be guilty of bad punning, entirely different animals from the Red Court Vampires I'd faced down in Harry Dresden's cosmos. The black ribbon she wore was a common sight on vampires in this day and age of the Disc, showing her status as a Black Ribboner; essentially a Vampire temperance movement that refuses to drink the blood of humans or other sentient species (save trolls, for obvious reasons there). "Doctor, did you know you have two hearts?", she asked, her accent slightly off with just a hint of what I'd know as a Slavic tone.

"Time Lord physiology," I answered.

"I see. Very useful, two hearts."

"And your friend isn't Human either," Angua added, looking to Janias.

"Yes, I've yet to find a way to change her scent, Captain, but the holobelt usually works." I noticed Angua's sharp look and kept a neutral expression. Undoubtedly she'd intended for me to think Sally had realized that fact about Janias.

The door to the office opened. Vetinari's personal security, Drumknott, stepped out. "His Lordship will see you and your friends now, Doctor."

Vimes was standing at one side of Vetinari's desk while on the other was a man in a bowler hat with a couple of very large men at his sides; presumably he was Mister Boggis, President of the Thieves' Guild. At the desk was the man I'd expected to see; Lord Havelock Vetinari. Ankh-Morpork operated on the "one man, one vote" system, namely, Havelock Vetinari was the man and he had the vote. He was about the closest thing you'd ever find to the idea of a benevolent despot (unless you were a mime), which I considered to come from the fact that he had mastered his ego and preferred the slight hand of control over the bludgeon of power. A man didn't need the rack and thumbscrews when he could call upon the power of committees and councils.

Vetinari was an imposing man, but it was not from physical strength; he was shorter than I was and on the thin side, with a pointed and wel-kept beard. He looked like the quintessential Prince of Machiavelli; indeed I suspect this man, if introduced to "The Prince", would consider it a beginner's primer.

"Ah, Doctor, welcome," he said amiably. "I am pleased to see you are well. By all accounts you have had a very busy day in our fair city." There was an edge to the word 'fair'; Vetinari was cynical enough to know just what his people were really like.

"It's been a hectic day, yes. There is something about Ankh-Morpork that lends itself to hustle and bustle."

"Indeed. Unfortunately, some of your activities have been of questionable legality, so I'm thankful to have the chance to go over them with you. To start with, I have a note that Mister Krist, the owner of a fine establishment of glassware, has accused your friends of destroying his merchandise?"

"His rope snapped, sir. And he was... agitated."

"The same with the woman who's child was nearly crushed by his merchandise? She was also of the outspoken opinion that your lady friend caused the incident."

"Her child was threatened, Your Lordship, I'm not surprised that she jumped to conclusions out of fear for her baby."

"Yes indeed." Vetinari folded his hands together. "And the accusation that your friend is a witch?"

"There seems to be something of a concern over witchese these days. It may have contributed."

"So it does seem." Vetinari clearly knew there was more to this. "Thankfully, Captain Carrot's statement has corroborated that Mister Krist's rope was weak, and I think it is safe to say your view is fairly accurate." He shuffled paper on his desk. "On another matter... someone set fire to a portion of the Ankh River under the Misbegot Bridge."

I shrugged. "Someone was careless with a match, I imagine."

"It has been known to happen, yes." Vetinari looked over the paper. "Unfortunately, the fire damaged several riverfront buildings, three boats, and there was a case of a rather unfortunate young man who is currently be treated for burns at the Free Hospital."

"My word, someone was trying to swim in the Ankh?" I gasped.

"I'm sure you're aware of how young males can do foolish things in the name of a bet. I trust the case will be a reminder of the risks involved."

We exchanged a look that said how much that reminder would be heeded in our estimations.

The glance also said a lot about this interview. I was being tested. And that, I suspected, was just one part of Vetinari's purpose.

"Finally, Doctor, Mister Boggis and his Guild have accused you of unlicensed thievery."

"So I was told." This, of course, was the most dangerous issue for me. "I am curious as to the charge."

"According to the statement of Mister Pincher, you seized this locket from him." Vetinari held up my TARDIS remote.

"Does Mister Pincher's report relay the facts, that the locket was mine and stolen by him and that I left him six pounds of gold to cover the requested protection fee?"

"He did indeed." Vetinari smiled thinly. "However, that does not change the fact that you took possession of it and evaded him before making the payment, which the Thieves Guild sees as a clear act of theft."

I looked to Boggis and his frowning bodyguards. "Indeed? So in Ankh-Morpork, a man does not have the right to reclaim his property?"

"You will understand if the Thieves Guild is rather opposed to such a thought, Doctor," Vetinari pointed out. "To them it's not a case of reclaiming property but rather a second act of theft, thieving from thieves so to speak. They take an understandably dim view of that, you see. And as they are a respectable organization that helps to keep this city's crime under control, I feel obligated to give their viewpoints due consideration."

Which, of course, was not the same as agreeing with their viewpoints. I had a feeling this was merely the biggest stick Vetinari planned to wield in whatever dealings he wished to have with me. "I see Mister Boggis' point. Perhaps he would accept compensation of a sort, something to uphold the principle he feels I have crossed? I understand that with the new golem standard for this city's currency gold has lost some value, but surely another, say, ten pounds of gold would be sufficient for this purpose? And a solemn promise to never do it again, of course."

Vetinari said nothing, but I could see Boggis was smiling widely. I returned to smile. Vetinari saw the expression and kept his own faint smile. "What do you have to say to the gentleman's proposal, Mister Boggis?"

"Perfectly reasonable," Boggis announced.

"Capital," Vetinari remarked, showing an appearance of being pleased.

"I'm glad I could do business with you, Mister Boggis. May I request that some of my... recompensatory bequest be used to further benefit Mister Pincher? He is, I must say, the most professional and altogether decent mugger I have ever been mugged by. He does the Thieves Guild great credit."

"Pincher's one of my best," Boggis boasted. "Good to see you have a good eye for talent, Doctor."

In other words, my request was denied, graciously. I nodded to show I understood him and offered my hand. "A pleasure to do business with you, Mister Boggis."

After I shook hands with the Thieves Guild's president and watched him depart, we were left alone with Vimes, Vetinari, and Drumknott. "I believe this takes care of everything, Your Lordship?"

"It does, for the most part," Vetinari conceded. He stood up and walked to the window. "Would you mind stepping up, sir?"

I did so, standing beside the window with him. I was quite certain he wasn't intending something like having me shot by an assassin; it wasn't his style, especially not with Vimes in the room. "I hear we have you to thank for our city not being taken over by... what were they, Sir Samuel?"

"Ghosts of some sort," Vimes replied.

"Yes, ghosts, I suppose. I shall have to ask the Archchancellor for more information on what precisely happened, but Commander Vimes has made it quite clear to me that you were instrumental in thwarting the destruction of our city." He gestured out the window. "And when you look out upon this metropolis you have saved, Doctor, what do you see?"

Well, truthfully I simply saw a thick fog growing in the streets and the customary gray of Ankh-Morpork. But I knew what the Patrician was getting at. "A machine, running more smoothly than it has in years," I answered. "Just as I know I am standing beside the engineer responsible for this happy circumstance."

"Indeed," Vetinari answered. "The city is a machine, and it is a very difficult machine to operate at times. For all of the simplicity of the human condition - and the similar conditions of the dwarves and trolls and other fair races we now number amongst our citizenry - putting a million of them together in a confined space turns simplicities into a complex machine that demands a great deal of attention to keep running. I have, over the years, prided myself on knowing when and where the machine needs fixing, so you will understand if my primary concern is always for the functioning of the machine."

"So you say," I answered. I had my own views of sentient nature, but I decided to allow Vetinari his monologue, knowing it was building up to something.

"And today, Doctor, you arrived in my city. And the machine shook. Not severely, I grant, but nevertheless... I look at you and I see a being who can, quite easily, shake my machine to its very heart."

Ah, that was it then. "Yet I have not done so. Nor will I."

"Oh?" Vetinari's eyebrow went up. "Are you telling me that you refrain from tinkering with such things? That in your many travels, to whichever places you go to, you never interfere with what you see?"

He had me there, of course. "I have acted before, yes, when the situation required," I conceded.

"And who, Doctor, judged whether your involvement was required?", Vetinari asked.

"Ultimately, I did," I admitted. "Usually because I saw something terrible happening."

"So you have no authority you are responsible toward. You are a rogue element."

"I suppose you could say I am a free agent."

Vetinari's smile took on an edge. "I believe I just did, Doctor." He walked beyond me to stand by Vimes. "In this city, Doctor, there is an authority, and that authority must act with caution toward 'free agents' such as yourself. And so I would make a request of you, Doctor."

With great wariness, I asked, "And that would be?"

Vetinari reached over and took my hand. When he pulled it back, my TARDIS remote and key were in my hand again.

"My request, Doctor, is that you finish what remains of your current business in this city and depart."

"And never come back, I imagine?"

"I would not say never. Simply not soon. And when you return, do make sure you remember our talk?" Vetinari gestured to the door. "Please, don't let me detain you any further."

We filed out of the Oblong Office, with guards escorting us to the Palace entrance. Janias frowned and looked back at the Palace. "And he can just kick us out like that?"

"Oh, he was asking nicely. We don't want to make him ask unkindly."

"Yes, he may have to detain us further then," Camilla remarked drolly.

Seeing Mister Boggis' men were waiting for us at the TARDIS, crossbows in their hands but not held in immediate threat, I sighed. "Yes, that is exactly it. Anyway, let's get Mister Boggis his gold and visit some individuals under a bridge, I owe them something too."

It was not just dusk but almost night when I materialized the TARDIS beside Pseudopolis Yard, for Charity's benefit. "I wish Lord Vetinari wasn't making you leave," she admitted to me. "I enjoyed meeting you, Doctor, and you wonderful friends."

"The pleasure was mine, Charity," I replied. "Take care of yourself."

"Of course. I'm gonna be a copper, after all," she insisted. "But... I didn't want to, but I wanted to ask..."

"You want to see your mother," I finished for her.

She nodded.

I looked to the girls. "Well, Lord Vetinari wants me to leave at this time, visiting about... oh, twelve years in the past shouldn't be hard. I shall have to take a scan of you first, Charity..."

After we took that scan, the TARDIS computers were able to calculate her age and give us a day. That alone wasn't going to be enough, as dozens, even hundreds of babies are born every day. Thankfully, Janias was able to give us a location to materialize in. We stepped out into an alleyway in one of Ankh-Morpork's seedier districts. There was a cry from an adjacent alley and we followed it.

There we saw a woman against the wall, screaming as she clearly gave birth. "Ah, here she comes, here she comes!", another woman, clearly a friend, called out. We watrched silently as the birth completed. I felt horrible watching this, knowing how poor these people were, and that with Charity with me I couldn't do anything to alleviate it without altering her timeline, and thus our encounter.

"A little girl, just like I tole you!", the midwife proclaimed. She showed the squealing baby to the other woman. She moved dirty brown locks out of her eyes and beheld her child. "D'ya have a name?"

"I... I..." The new mother's breath became erratic. "I'm not... Oh Gods, Lanie..."

"I'll go get help!" The woman, with the baby still in her arms.

"No..! My baby...!" The mother watched the woman run off with the child.

I felt tears in my eyes at this point. But Charity was weeping. "That's my mum. It's my poor mum."

Before I could stop her, Charity ran forward to her mother. "Mum! Mum!"

The new mother looked up at the child running toward her. Charity threw her arms around her late mother... who wasn't quite so late yet. The woman stared at her, bewildered. But I watched as the confusion shifted into certainty. "My baby," she sighed. "It's really you, isn't it? The gods have sent you back to me."

"Not a god." Charity looked back at me. "Something better."

I looked heavenward, worried that a lightning bolt would come crashing down. But nothing happened. Maybe they weren't watching up on Dunmanifestin. Or they were enjoying the show too much. I wasn't going to ask.

"My little Sarah," the woman said, her voice hoarse. "My baby..." She faded into unconsciousness.

I stepped up and used the sonic to check her body. "She has internal bleeding, it's... I'm sorry, but it's too late."

"Yeah," Charity sniffled. "I know."

I put a hand on her shoulder and guided her back toward the TARDIS. As we came to a corner I felt something at the corner of my mind. I twisted my head to look back to the dying woman. I perceived a shape beside her, one that I had to focus to truly see.

A black cowl and robe. And a certain farming implement. The Reaper Man had come to tend to his harvest.

"Let's go back to your proper time, Sarah," I said, moving the crying Little Match Girl along.

When we returned to the time we'd left, Charity was sobbing quietly at a corner of the TARDIS. Camilla walked over and took the younger girl into her arms. "There, I know how it feels. I know."

It occurred to me I'd never asked her about her parents. Given she was a human slave in the Sith Empire... I thought it best to not ask.

There was little light left when Charity finally made her way to the door. "Please come back. I... I won't tell anyone if you come and visit."

I smiled softly at her. "I suspect, young lady, that Lord Vetinari would discover it anyway. Still, perhaps I shall come and see the wizards some time, I had Professor Stibbons ready to beg me to help him with his exotic time-space projects."

"Good. Then I'll see you sometime soon?"

"Expect me when you see me, my dear." I reached into my pocket and brought out a small pouch. "You've still got a few years before Vimes will let you take the King's Shilling, Charity, but this should keep a roof over your head until then."

She opened the pouch and looked at it intently. "It's... more gold."

"Gold dollars. Not Ankh-Morpork dollars, certainly, but I'm betting you can find someone willing to buy the coins from you. If I were you, though, I would go straight to the Royal Bank in the morning and open an account with them. I'm sure Constable Visit or another Watchman will join you if they want an adult, and I suspect that the Chairman of the Bank, or rather his legal keeper, will be quick to give you a fair price for them. Not too much of one, but sufficient. Especially if you have a Watchman at your side." I winked.

"Doctor..."

I heard the warning in Janias' voice a moment before I saw him, or rather smelled him. That horrifying stench of corruption was like a razorblade to my smelling senses and I was getting fed up with it. I looked up and saw, down the alley, the dark figure of the Cunning Man approaching. "Excuse me," I said to Charity. I stepped back inside the TARDIS, pulled out a glass container of liquid I'd quickly prepared upon my return to the TARDIS, and stepped back out and up toward the approaching figure.

_You will be mine! The witches will burn! They will all burn!_

"No warnings this time!" I heaved the container. As I'd planned, it shattered right under the ghost's feet. "I already told you once and I'm not doing it again! _BUGGER OFF!_"

I brought my sonic up and activated it. It was a simple thermal pulse.

The liquid that had been inside the container erupted into flame. A flame that the Cunning Man was now in the middle of. He shrieked and flailed and cried out in rage before vanishing.

"Well, that takes care of him," I said.

"Is he gone?", Janias asked. "He couldn't be..."

"He never dies," I answered, even as the flames died behind me. "He can only be defeated for a time. And that wasn't nearly enough, oh no. He'll run off for a while and recover. Then he'll be back."

"You should let the wizards know," Charity said. "They can deal with him."

"I'm sure they do, but they're not quite the right tool for that job. Nor are we, my dears." I saw the look on my Companions' faces. "No, the Cunning Man has another nemesis. There's a very bright and quite powerful young witch out in the Chalk Hills who will deal with him in due time." I glanced at Charity. "And I didn't say that."

"My lips are sealed, sir," Charity promised.

"Good." I knelt down and exchanged a hug with her. "Take care of yourself, Charity. You're a very special girl."

"Thank you, sir."

She exchanged hugs with Jan and Cami and skipped down toward the other end of the alley.

"Well, it's time to go," I sighed. "We'll have to come back at a further point in the time stream to do some touring."

"Captain Carrot offered to take us to a few places when we got out," Camilla revealed.

"Unsurprising. Perhaps we'll all take him up on that."

The girls stepped into the TARDIS. As I went to, I felt something again, something I'd felt shortly before. I turned back from the TARDIS door.

"Doctor?", Cami called from within.

"I'll be right there," I replied. "Just one last thing."

Death was standing in the alleyway.

"So, checking up on Charity, are you?", I asked politely.

YES. I KEEP AN EYE ON HER WHEN THE DUTY PERMITS. Death set his scythe to the side. THANK YOU FOR YOUR KINDNESS TO HER.

"It's all part of what I do," I replied. "So..."

A thought occurred to me. If Death wasn't entirely limited to the Discworld, could he know...

I DO NOT KNOW YOUR TRUE NAME, he replied, pre-empting me. NOR DO I KNOW ANYTHING OF WHAT WAS DONE TO YOU.

"Oh? So you're just limited to the Disc?"

NO. THE EXPLANATION IS... COMPLEX. IT INVOLVES SIX DIMENSIONAL WIBBLY WOBBLY, YOU MIGHT SAY.

"Ah." I drew in a sigh. "I don't suppose you'd happen to have my..."

I DO. BUT THAT IS NOT WHAT I AM HERE FOR. He reached into his robes. I THOUGHT IT BEST FOR YOU TO SEE THIS YOURSELF.

I watched him pull out two objects. I could see immediately that they were lifetimers. And I didn't need a Time Lord brain to guess whom they belonged to.

Of course, the Aurabesh writing on them made that clear anyway.

I watched the sands flow from the top bulbs to the bottom, in perfect synch. "Is there any way for me to know how long that actually is?", I asked quietly.

NO. THERE IS... UNCERTAINTY.

"But it's... yes, I suppose it would still flow." I swallowed. "I see. Yes, thank you for showing me."

I CAN SEE THE DECISION WILL NOT BE AN EASY ONE FOR YOU. IT IS NOT EASY TO BE ALONE, DOCTOR. BUT THERE IS ALWAYS DUTY. YOU KNEW THIS WHEN YOU ASSUMED THE NAME.

"Yes," I replied. I knew my voice was hoarse from emotion. "I know."

I WILL BE GOING NOW. THERE IS AN ACCIDENT IN KRULL THAT MUST BE SEEN TO.

"Give your granddaughter my regards," I said. "I suspect she and I will meet some time. It's how the Disc works, after all."

I WILL DO SO. TAKE CARE, DOCTOR. I SHALL SEE YOU AGAIN SOMETIME.

"Yes, I imagine so."

I didn't look back to watch him disappear. I was starting to think of those lifetimers he showed me, and what they meant. I knew that sand would run out before anyone would know it... well, save Death himself of course, that is rather his job.

Janias and Camilla met me at the controls. "Well, that was a trip," Camilla remarked. "We got hauled off to jail and you had to run around this whole stinking city."

"Yes. It was a rather unique experience. I think some of Rincewind's luck rubbed off on me."

"What happened to that guy anyway?," Janias asked. "I've never seen anyone run so fast."

"I imagine he had to help with the cleanup at the University. Ridcully probably yelled at him a bit, but he'll be fine. It wasn't his fault. Rincewind tends to be fortune's chewtoy at times." I drew in a breath. "The bigger question is... the Gelth. They came through the Crack. They were from the Doctor's cosmos and they _came through the Crack_."

"That's... bad?"

"It's... it's bad and it's good and I don't know." On a whim I tried to lock onto the Doctor's cosmos again. It didn't work. "I still can't go there myself. But there's a connection there. I know there's some kind of connection."

"We'll figure it out, just give it time, Doctor," Camilla said, trying to be reassuring.

I nodded at that, trying to get the image of their lifetimers out of my head. Death was doing us all a favor, I knew that. But to be reminded so starkly... "Well, time waits for no one, not even a Time Lord," I announced. "Let's go find somewhere nice to visit. What do you say?"

"You're the pilot of this thing," Janias reminded me with a smirk. "We're just your hapless Companions."

"Not hapless, my dear, never hapless," I pointed out as I reached for the lever. "Well, it was nice to see the Disc, we'll have to come back some time." _I know I will be coming back some time_, I thought.

As I pulled the lever back, I mulled over the name that Eskarina had whispered into my ear. It sounded so familiar, but my mind couldn't focus on it.

It would be a long time before I found out just what that name meant to me.


	2. Short 1 - Poking The Beast

**Short 11 - Poking The Beast**

My TARDIS is such a rascal sometimes.

So here me and my companions are, ready for a relaxing nature walk on Vesper Prime. I shifted the TARDIS as usual and put my hands together. "I hear the weather's always mild on their temperate island chains."

"It'd better be," Janias responded. "That last place you took us to was a sauna."

"Saunas can be good. Saunas..." I stopped mid-sentence as I opened the TARDIS and stepped out.

There was no delightful beach on the other end. No verdant forest or white sands. It was a military landing area with a number of uniformed men and women lined up, some armed with rifles and some not. A shuttle had recently landed, it seemed, with a line of people escorted out. At first glance it looked to be a welcoming committee of some sort, but seeing the body language of the visitors showed what kind of welcoming committee it was: not very welcoming to the guests.

Having seen the starbursts on most of those present, not to mention the flags, my eyes settled on the uniformed "guests" and the particular insignia on them. No starburst. Rather a golden form of an animal of some sort, winged and with a nasty looking tail. Not a chimera...

Oh, yes. A manticore.

Manticore.

It was about that point I realized where I was. And that "guest" and "host" alike were staring at me. One particular set of blue eyes, attached to a head of golden hair and a diminutive frame almost trembling with energy, was distinctly focused on me, in the fashion of a person who's moment of glory is being unexpectantly spoiled. A couple of rifles were starting to turn my way.

Like I said, my TARDIS is such a _rascal_.

"I forgot to carry the two," I proclaimed aloud. I wagged my finger. "I always forget the two. Why do I always...?" I looked back into the TARDIS. "Girls, I forgot to carry the two again!"

On cue, they groaned. Loudly.

I looked back to the assembled and clapped my hands together. "I always forget the... oh, I'm sorry. I'm interrupting something. So rude of me. So terribly rude. Hello, everyone. I'm the Doctor." My hand slipped into my pocket just long enough to grab my sonic screwdriver. Given the guns leveled at me, I took it out slowly. "Laser pointer. The tip is purple. I love purple. Now..."

"_Who are you_?", the blonde demanded.

"As I said, I'm the Doctor. I'm..." I almost said "Time Lord" but my brain shouted that down. Not the wisest term to use given this one's... viewpoints. "...a Gallifreyan. Just look Human. Two hearts, though, brain's all different. Anyway, whom do I have the pleasure of speaking with?"

That brought some confusion to mix with the growing anger. Clearly this one didn't expect me to be ignorant of her. "This is Citizen Secretary Cordelia Ransom," one uniformed man said, looking very much like he was trying to keep the situation from exploding. Good man, that one. "Secretary of Information for the People's Republic."

"Ah, I see." I gave a confused look. "Citizen Secretary? Curious use of words there. Doesn't that imply that someone can be a secretary and not be a citizen?"

"It is to enforce _equality_," Ransom growled. "Those who believe otherwise are obvious Enemies of the People."

"Oh, well, I can't have that, always liked the People myself. A little strange in costume but... wait, you're not talking about the Village People. Or the People of Song. Sorry, I get mixed up easily. What People are you talking about?"

I kept my voice vibrant but not assertive and did my best to not eye the guns being pointed my way. I knew that at any moment the order to shoot might be given - the good Secretary, I mean, _Citizen_ Secretary was clearly not in good sorts - and that meant keeping that order from being given meant I had to keep her off-balance.

Minds like Cordelia Ransom's remind me of the Churchill saying: "Fanatics can't change their mind and won't change the subject". _Any_ indication that I was on the subject of her fanaticism would simply play into her narrow mind and trigger a response. The solution was to derail the Ransom train by confusing the hell out of her with things that didn't fit into that narrow mind. They were all already off balance by my sudden unexpected arrival, and I was good at rolling with those in a way they weren't. I just had to... press that advantage as long as I could.

"The _People_," Ransom hissed, "are the common citizens."

"Ah, I see now. _Those_ People. Jolly good, always liked the People. Help them out when I can. Saved a whole galaxy of People once. Got shot. Long story." I smiled and put my hands together, checking my sonic in the process to see what I was dealing with. "I do so apologize for the interruption, by the way, but I'll make it up to you. How would you like to see the Amethyst Cliffs of Jeli? They're very lovely."

"I am not..."

"No? Hrm, yes, I gather you're more the type for the Obsidian Prisms." With no immediate reply, I continued. "Crystal spires of Tuzanor? Oh come now, I'm sure a Citizen Secretary's job is difficult enough that a vacation is warranted, some relaxing time in Bajor's Kendra Valley perhaps, or the sights of Ashalla."

"There can be no vacations while the elitists of Manticore continue to attack us!", Ransom raged. "And you are interfering with the punishment of these Enemies of the People!"

"Really?" I leaned forward conspiratorially. "What did they do?"

"This is Commodore Harrington, the war criminal who butchered the sailors of the _Sirius_ at Basilisk!", Ransom thundered. "Everyone knows what she did?"

"Sorry, I'm a traveler, don't always stay up on the news." I looked to the stone-faced Manticoran Commodore, a woman with Caucasian and East Asian features and a cat perched on her shoulder. "Killing innocent people? Tsk tsk tsk. Bad Commodore. Bad." I waggled the sonic at her... giving me the opportunity to check on the scans. Magnetic firearms. Oooh, I knew how to deal with those. I surreptitiously switched the sonic screwdriver to counter such weapons. I looked back to Ransom. "Are you sure you don't want to go off on a little cruise? I can return you to this point in time, and you look like you could use a good vacation."

Ransom looked like she was fit to explode.

"Ah, I'll take that as a no, or a maybe later," I continued, keeping my voice chipper and jolly. It was clear my deception was running its course; the train had been kept off the tracks up until now, but pure rage was shifting her into gear. I moved on to the next phase of my plan, namely, the cat on Commodore Harrington's shoulder. "Oh, isn't he cute?", I cooed, walking up to the woman and looking at her cat. He had six arms. "Hexalimbed feline species... oh, quite a good looking one too. I'm sorry Citizen Secretary, but I'm quite a cat lover. Can't get enough of kittens." I brought my hand up and stroked the cat under the chin, causing both him and the woman he was perched on to stare at me in wonderment. "Isn't he so cuuute, yes he is."

The moment I made contact I knew I might have, at most, a second before the irate treecat tried to saw my finger off. The reason I risked mutilation? I knew that this species tended to forge solid empathic links with humans they lived with, to the point that the wounding of one caused pain for the other; indeed killing the cat would have undoubtedly done major harm to the woman as well. And that empathic link was something I could use with my own psionic capacity. _Calm down there, my good cat. And Commodore Honor Harrington, isn't it? Don't look surprised, but narrow your left eye if you hear me._

She did so, clearly shocked.

_Okay. When you get the signal, get your people and run for that police call box. You'll know when._

"She is an enemy!", Ransom raged, finding her voice finally. "An Enemy of the People, a murderer of our citizens, and a symbol of elitist oppression! By patronizing with her and that ridiculous pet you prove yourself another Enemy of the People and..."

"You know, I've seen several examples of rhetoric like this," I declared, shedding my smile and beginning to scowl. "People who declare all of their opponents, no matter their motives, to be more than just 'wrong' but actively malicious. 'Enemy of the People'. Such a loaded term. By its very nature it implies someone is against the whole of society regardless of the truth of their beliefs." I focused my eyes on Ransom. "And then there's always someone like you, fanning the flames of intolerance and hatred until they consume everything, even those you claim to be standing for."

"Shoot him!", Ransom ordered her bodyguards.

They brought up their rifles. But my sonic came up faster.

The pulse I sent out with it was an energetic pulse keyed to the capacitors in their "railgun" firearms. The guns' barrels exploded, although it was more of a loud popping noise with sparks. I swung the screwdriver around, emitting the field as I went. Weapons all over the landing area when pop-spark-crackle-fizz.

"And now we _run_!", I shouted.

The guards, I give them credit. They tried to stand their ground. Their guns could no longer fire, but they were still lethal clubs, and they advanced on me and the Manticoran prisoners with weapons raised.

There was a flash of purple light in my vision and the familiar snap and hiss sound of a lightsaber being activated. Janias had gotten enough practice with me that she was a deadly combatant now when she got the room, spinning and slicing and jumping about. She scythed through a platoon that was moving to cut us off from the TARDIS.

Granted, that still left a few dozen military personnel to overwhelm us... but they were hitting the floor. I glanced and saw Camilla standing by the TARDIS entrance, a familiar-looking assault rifle in her arms. The assembled officers and soldiers hit the deck to avoid getting shot as mass effect-propelled rounds zipped over their heads.

I pulled out the sonic disruptor and used it to send a guard rushing me into another attempting to attack one of Harrington's crew. For their part they were making short work - well mostly - of the guards who had been nearest to them.

"Stop them!", Ransom screamed. "Stop...!"

She didn't get to say another word. My little feline friend, having refrained from slicing my fingers to bits, decided on another target. It's surprising how quickly six legs can let something move.

And it's not so surprising how six legs with razor-sharp claws on the end can ruin a person, as the Citizen Secretary found out. I actually turned away, not wanting to see more as blood poured from Ransom's face with Nimitz latched on. A spurt of blood in the corner of my vision told me he'd found her carotid.

The guards were down by this point, wounded by Janias' lightsaber or by the attacks of the Manticoran crew. They were streaming into the TARDIS now, a couple of them wounded in various ways but, for the moment, intact.

As I got to the door I looked at Cami. "Where did you get that?!", I demanded.

"Garrus," she replied. "He said something about how anyone crazy enough to let Shepard shoot him would be needing better cover fire."

"I'm going to have words with Mister Vakarian, I don't like..." I stopped myself, remembering we still had the business of escaping, preferably before some enterprising Havenite manned a shuttle or some other armed craft. "Everyone in? Good!", I said instead, noticing everyone looking around the TARDIS control room. "Bigger on the inside."

As I reached for the controls, the thought came to me. Why was I feeling so upset that Cami had an assault rifle? I'm a practical man, aren't I?

The only thought in response was _The Doctor doesn't use guns_.

Seeing the looks I was getting as I set the coordinates, I spoke out loud/ "Okay everyone, next step is Manticore. I think I have these coordinates right, a nice scenic park in the capital, should be a marvelous view..." I pulled the lever. _VWORP VWORP VWORP_. "Hear that sound? Lovely sound. Always a lovely sound. Hand-brake my arse." I looked up to see the assembled officers all glancing at each other. I could see what the looks on their faces meant; everything had turned topsy turvy on them and they were wondering what was going on. "This is my TARDIS, by the way. It's bigger on the inside because of dimensionally transcendental technology. She decided to be an utter rascal and drop me into that little scene, so I played along." With the VWORPing stopped I walked back to the door. "And now, here we..."

I opened the door, stepped out... and faced down a gun pointed in my face.

Quickly I took in my surroundings. The man was in battle armor of a sort, but clearly it had a ceremonial as well as practical purpose. There were other armed men present as well - armed men and women I should say - and... this was understandably so, as we were not in a park but in a large hall. A throne room of sorts, actually.

A woman with dark skin looked at me with surprise and irritation. She was seated in a throne. And I noticed the Manticoran insignia on her clothing and on the flag behind her. Queen Elizabeth, then.

I certainly do know how to drop in, don't I?

"I forgot to carry the two again," I muttered. I executed a slight bow so I wouldn't get shot by a bodyguard thinking I was up to something. "I'm sorry for the surprise, Your Majesty, I forgot the two again."

The woman's eyes widened, as did those of her officials, when Commodore Harrington stepped out behind me, her fellow officers following her. "Commodore Harrington?"

Honor executed a proper bow. "Your Majesty."

"I had been told you were captured by Haven," the Queen said. "Who is this man, and what is that... 'police call box'?"

"I'm not entirely sure myself," she answered. "But he faced down Cordelia Ransom and rescued us."

"Yes, that was... a pleasant outcome to an unintended visit," I replied. "I am the Doctor, Your Majesty, and that is my TARDIS. I was pleased to be of assistance to you and your officers. The Havenites are rather nasty buggers at the moment, showing them up was my pleasure."

She looked to an aide. "Summon the Admiralty and the Cabinet, now. We must all hear this."

I drew in a sigh. I really hated having to repeat stories to these types. Especially since there'd inevitably be someone who wanted to use the TARDIS as a weapon. But I had a number of guns pointing at me so, well, have to do what I can, right?

* * *

After a few hours of explanations and a rather splendid impromptu banquet, I stepped back into the TARDIS to check something important. Janias and Cami were already heading to bed. I would have to talk to Cami later about that rifle, although... what did I have to object to? Sometimes you need a firearm.

Again my inner voice spoke in my head. _The Doctor doesn't use guns_.

Qhen I came back out, Honor was waiting for me. "Thank you for rescuing us," she answered. "Ransom was going to murder Nimitz."

"Yes. I rather suspect that's why he did such a job on her face." I held out a data crystal solid. "You should be able to get one of your computer technicians to find a way to extract the data from this, I'm not so familiar with your average storage devices."

Honor accepted the crystal. "What's on it?"

"It's a solar system that your forces should really try to take. Quietly, you don't want Haven to know you know about it," I answered. "It's their prison planet. There are prisoners there who will prove of use to your Kingdom and its war effort."

"I see." She pocketed the crystal. "It's where I would have ended up if you hadn't come along, isn't it?"

"Yes. Ransom had plans." I smirked. "Your crew would have ruined them, of course, but you would have been stuck there in the process.. And I think I can safely say you will prefer this outcome to that one. Being stuck for two years in a bad place like that isn't an enjoyable experience."

"Indeed not." I sensed she was still a little... wobbled, perhaps? I had just drastically changed what she and the others knew of the world. "I hope you return sometime, Doctor. We could use good men like you against Haven."

"You'll do a bang-up job against them, don't worry. And I may check in. Though..." I leaned closer to her to whisper. "I must warn you, Commodore. Haven is not your true enemy. They must be dealt with, but there is a greater threat." I lowered my voice more. "I can't say much, I've altered your timeline enough already. But I must sum it up in one word: Mesa."

"Mesa?"

"Yes. Mesa. Be very careful with that word, Commodore. And be ready to speak on it when the time is right." I smirked. "I may be back by that point. I have... issues with the forces at play there."

"I really wish you would be straight forward about this," she complained.

"Sorry. I'm a Time Lord. We enjoy this sort of thing." I winked. "Take care, Commodore. Enjoy your early return home, and don't forget about that prison planet."

"Safe travels, Doctor."

I gave a nod in reply and stepped into the TARDIS. When I got to the controls I waggled a finger at them. "Okay you, this time no tricks!"

I heard a giggle in the air and knew my request would be futile.

And, I suppose, I wouldn't have had it any other way.


	3. Short 2 - A Little Comfort

**Short 12 - A Little Comfort**

Every once and a while, I would keep up my practice of visiting Princess Katherine, continuing my plan to nudge her future away from the terrible figure she would otherwise become.

I had attended her seventh birthday party as was my usual course, but the sour note of the War of 3039 and the declining, terminal condition of her grandmother Katrina had dampened the festivities. Knowing Katrina's time would come soon, I returned quickly to the aftermath of her passing.

Katherine was in her room, wearing a plain light blue dress and blouse, staring outside the window. The _mycosia_ I had given her two years prior, in her timeline anyway, was standing up to the Tharkad cold as I promised it could. I looked at her guard and took a step in. "Hello, Katherine."

When she looked up at me, it was with red, teary eyes. "They buried my grandmother," she said quietly.

"I see." I knelt down beside her. "I'm sorry."

She put her arms around my shoulders and cried softly. As she did so, I found myself considering that I was actually succeeding. In the original timeline, Katherine had tried to color her hair red to look like Natasha Kerensky, wanting to be the center of attention; fueling that desire for praise and worship that would eventually flower into megalomania.

Her hair had no such color here. It was its usual fine blond tone. And I could sense her deep, real grief.

In short… Katherine was being a good girl. And I'd made her a promise on that account.

I looked to the bodyguard at the doorway. "Can you see if Archon Melissa has the time to visit us? Let her know I'm here."

He nodded. Many of the guards here knew me by now, and my friendliness with the rulers. He made the call over the radio.

When Melissa came, I could see she had been crying as well. Not in public, of course; royalty doesn't do that. But in private… of course she had.

I executed a respectful bow. "Your Highness. My condolences for your loss."

"Thank you," she replied simply. "You wished to see me?"

"Yes…. I wanted to make a request and an offer." I patted Katherine on the head. "A brief excursion from this grief-stricken palace may be for the best."

"You mean you wish to take us somewhere in that device of your's."

"Yes. Not for long, but to give you some time away from all of… this."

I saw the conflicted look in her tear-reddened eyes as she considered the offer and her duties. She looked down and over to Katherine who was watching intently. There was a pleading look on the young lady's face. Seeing her daughter's wishes had clearly shifted Melissa towards my offer, so only moments later she nodded. "Let us get ready, and we will be off," she answered.

* * *

Katherine was quite intrigued by the size of the courtyard when we arrived in the snowy northern kingdom I had selected. The guards recognized me and brought their halberds to attention.

"They hold you in rather high esteem," Melissa noted.

"Oh, it was nothing much. I saved the princess' boyfriend earlier in this winter," I answered nonchalantly. "Oh, and there was that whole business with that duke's invasion fleet, but I didn't do much there, honestly…"

The main doors opened before we got to them. I bowed respectfully to the figure that emerged, resplendent in a teal gown. "Your Majesty," I intoned. "May I introduce Her Majesty the Archon Melissa and her daughter, Princess Katherine? Archon, Princess, this is Her Majesty Queen Elsa of Arendelle."

Katherine's eyes widened. "The Snow Queen?", she asked, her wonder overwhelming whatever protocols and social rules exist for these kinds of things.

Elsa laughed. "That is what they call me, yes. Welcome to Arendelle, Princess, Archon. Please, come in. We have some time before dinner is served. And you can tell me the reason for this visit…"

Some time later, with dinner soon at hand, we were assembled in the Great Hall of the Palace. I stood by myself, allowing the others to mingle, and mingling they were. Janias, Camilla, and Melissa were chatting with Ana - sharing relationship advice from what I could tell - while Katherine gleefully played with Olaf in a snowdrift Elsa had made for her. The red in her eyes had subsided at this point and I could see that the visit was a success. Her wounded heart was mending.

Elsa stepped up beside me. "Archon Melissa tells me that you saved Katherine and her brother from an assassin."

"Well, yes. I was just at the right place and the right time." I smirked. "That seems to be the usual thing for me."

"You do enjoy bringing your friends to visit us."

"Your Majesty's hospitality has endeared itself to me."

"But this seems different than the last time."

"Yes." I watched Katherine giggle and plow into a snow-drift after cartwheeling away from Olaf. "She's much like you were, Elsa. She has a potential that can go either way."

"And you're keeping her on the right path?"

"I'm only trying to give her another choice, an outlet for all of that energy and ambition."

"I see." Elsa looked toward me. "I won't criticize you for always wanting to help, Doctor, but sometimes people have to learn things their own way."

I remained silent at that for a moment. I knew she was speaking from experience there. "I'm trying not to direct her, only to show her other possibilities. If I were to direct it then, yes, I would be in the wrong." I sighed. "She might make the wrong choice yet. I hope she won't. I'll do everything I can to show her alternative possibilities. But don't worry, I'm not going to forcefully change her life."

"I didn't think so. But it feels better hearing you say it." After another moment of silence she asked, "Will you ever be bringing Korra back for a visit?" Elsa's smile turned playful and a bit, dare I say it, wolfish?

"I'm not sure. Arendelle may not survive a rematch between you two."

"That, my dear Doctor, is what the ice castle is for."

I held that mental image in my brain for a couple of moments before we both began to laugh.

* * *

The TARDIS re-materialized in the throne room of the Lyran Commonwealth. My illustrious guests stepped out. "Will I get another ride?!", Katherine asked, filled with the impatience and exuberance of a child. "I want to meet Sir Harry!"

"When you're older," I said. Much older, in fact. I looked at Melissa. "And if your parents permit it, I shall take you somewhere on each birthday."

"That is something Hanse and I will have to discuss," Melissa answered. "But you have proven yourself worthy of trust, Doctor. I'll keep that in mind when we have that talk."

"Thank you, Archon, that is the only thing I can rightly ask for." I nodded to both of them. "I hope the excursion has been a relief to you. I shall be going now."

"First, Doctor..." Melissa looked down at her daughter, the meaningful look of a parent expecting their child to remember something socially important.

Dutifully, Katherine hugged me around the waist. "Thank you, Doctor, for letting me ride your magic box."

"You are welcome, dear Princess," I answered. "I will look forward to seeing you next year."

* * *

We were back on the TARDIS and taking a break. I was reading another book on quantum effects, Janias was practicing her lightsaber technique, and Camilla was doing little of anything but sitting and enjoying a drink. "Katherine is quite a sweet little girl," she said, ending the silence.

"Yes," I answered.

"How much of it is you?"

"None, hopefully," I replied. Granted, it was a bit of a naive one. One can hardly do what I was doing and not have an influence. "I'm just giving her another outlet. Otherwise she'd know nothing but the politics of the Inner Sphere, and that would lead her ambition toward wanting power. And then things would go wrong. Things might still go wrong. There's no guarantee she won't make the same choices even with my alternative."

"And if she does, you'll try to alter things to prevent her from making those choices?"

It was a direct question, and a sharp one. I drew in a breath. "I hope I don't," I finally said. "I have to have limits, Cami."

"Yes, you do, but sometimes I think you're starting to forget that. That whole business with the Air Nomads…"

I sighed. "Yes. I suppose that toed a line. But we stayed on the right side of that line, Cami."

"And with Jan and I here to watch you, you'll continue to."

As she said those words, two hourglasses returned to my memory. I could remember the bony hands of Death holding the Aurabesh-lettered timers and their synchronized sand flows. "Cami, thank you for that, but that won't last forever."

"We're not leaving, Doctor," Cami insisted. "We've got nothing to go to."

"That doesn't mean you won't." Or that they'd have a choice. We had done so many dangerous things…

"And what would happen to you if you were alone?", Cami asked pointedly.

I stared into space. "I don't know," I finally answered. "I…" ...didn't want to be alone and couldn't bring myself to think about it. But I didn't say that. It'd make them feel even more obligated.

Because I knew the time would come when I'd have to let them go. Death had made that point clear.

And as always happens in such circumstances, that time would come sooner than I had imagined...


	4. Episode 2 - A Better Way

**Episode 10 - A Better Way**

The TARDIS doesn't always take you where you're looking to go but where you need to be. That's one of the rules. Always has been. It had already happened to me, hadn't it?

And yet, sometimes, it still surprised me with where it decided to deposit us.

Here I was, thinking we were stepping out into a brisk, lovely day on Minbar, and instead I'm in the foothills of one of Bajor's mountain regions.

How did I know it was Bajor? Because I recognized the vista. The newly-made grave, and the ragged-clothed figure kneeling beside it, her hair longer than I'd ever known it to be.

"Nerys," I murmured to myself. Behind me Janias and Cami looked out from the entrance.

When she looked up I could see the pain and fury in her eyes. She'd just buried her father, as I knew she would, and she had gone off to fight rather than face watching him die.

I should have been better prepared for something like this, but I wasn't. I said nothing as she stormed up to me and, without a moment's hesitated, punched me right in the jaw. Given my height, that was very impressive. It caused me to reel backward and into the others. "_Why?!_," Nerys demanded, grabbing my jacket collar.. "Why didn't you let us go with you?! _Why didn't you save him?! Why did you make me stay and live with this?! WHY?!_"

I had remained silent to that point, prompting my Companions to do the same, but when she broke down into bitter sobs I hugged her, ignoring the pain in my jaw from her punch. I felt lucky she hadn't broken anything; given the slightly mal-nourished look on her, I suspected I would have had a broken jaw if she was fit.

"I'm sorry, Nerys," I whispered, feeling a tear in my own eye as I remembered the poor little girl who'd lost her brothers and who had begged me to let her stay in the TARDIS. Even when I thought about how, as second-in-command of Deep Space Nine, she had told me she understood why I left her and that she was glad to fulfill her role… I still felt deep regret and a sense of shame.

"Why won't you do anything for us?", Nerys asked. "You can help us against the Cardassians so much…"

"You'll beat them soon enough," I assured her. "Bajor will be free. If I do anything to interfere in that, it'll change your history, and likely not for the better."

"And how long will it take? How many of us are going to be beaten and tortured and killed by the Cardassians before they run off?" I could sense her fear and heartache. "Will I live to see it?"

"Yes," I answered. "You will. And it won't be far into the future. But it's not something I can force, Nerys. Not without changing history, and that could make things worse."

"I can't see how much worse they can be." Now doubt appeared in her features. "I… I can't believe you, Doctor. The Cardassians are so powerful that we'll never make them leave Bajor. And the Federation won't support us. You say they're going to leave, but why would they?"

It was, I think, a good question. It was never satisfactorily answered to my recollection, although Federation diplomatic pressure may have contributed. But I didn't know.

"They'll have their reasons," I answered. "I promise." 

* * *

We gave Nerys food and drink for her Resistance cell before she left. I closed the door to the TARDIS as she disappeared from sight and sighed. I wished, more than ever, that I had taken that sweet eight year old girl with me, had gotten her away from this horror.

We stood around quietly. "Well, she looks well enough, I guess," Janias finally said.

I remained silent.

"Doctor, you still did the right thing."

"I left an eight year old girl on a world full of violence, poverty, and terror," I answered. "Even though she begged me for sanctuary. Even though it was _cruel_."

"But you knew her future and how she would become something important."

"No, I believed she would. Because of what I believed, I left a little girl on a world like this. It's wrong, Cami. The timeline be damned, it's _wrong_."

"But you keep saying that the timeline has to be kept," Cami protested. "You can't just go changing it wherever you please."

"No, no I can't," I conceded.

Silence reigned amongst us for a little longer before Janias posed a question. "Why did they leave Bajor, anyway?"

The question cut into my unhappy mind, demanding a response.

And after thinking on it a moment, I realized the response was, "...I don't have a bit of an idea."

"You don't?"

"No. A lot of things were attributed; Federation diplomatic pressure, the costs of fighting the resistance on a planet they had already strip-mined… but nothing definite." I frowned. I didn't like that I couldn't be certain about this.

"Well, at least we know they're leaving eventually,' Janias pointed out. "And given all the times you've talked to us about bat things eating everyone if someone interferes in history the wrong way…"

"Why did the Cardassians withdraw?", I asked quietly as I worked the TARDIS controls. "It's a big question, isn't it? Great mystery, there. And you know how I like mysteries."

"And how much you like to get into trouble trying to solve them," Camilla laughed.

"Don't forget the people we meet," Janias added. "Like that guy in the bay city who kept wiping things down before he'd touch them."

"Now now, the good Mister Monk has his… eccentricities, but he's a pleasant chap, and sometimes I think his eye for detail would surpass even a Time Lord's." I finished locking in the coordinates. "Well girls, time to visit Cardassia Prime for the first time. I'm afraid it's not much for sight-seeing, however…" 

* * *

I wasn't exaggerating when I said Cardassia Prime wasn't much for sight-seeing. It was a polluted world with all of the trappings of an authoritarian system bordering on outright totalitarianism. And they didn't like strangers.

It was a good thing we weren't there for sight-seeing.

It took a few tries, but I finally materialized the TARDIS into the right time - about six months before the withdrawal - and what looked to be a small, unoccupied office, probably the private office of a mid-level functionary of the government. I didn't bother to check, as I was too busy disabling the security systems from the doorway to my stealthed up TARDIS to check. Once I was sure we wouldn't be detected immediately I stepped out, my sonic still in hand, and went to the controls. "Janias, let me know if anyone is coming," I murmured.

My good ex-Padawan friend nodded and stood by the door, reaching out with her senses and keeping a hand on her lightsaber. Camilla stood at the TARDIS to cover us with that mass effect assault rifle that a certain Turian gun enthusiast gifted her.

The computer system built into the desk was easily accessed and, with the screwdriver's help, I was able to override security lockouts to get fairly deep into the system. But not deep enough. Or, rather, without the benefit I needed; the Cardassians kept the information I was looking for on an isolated system accessibly only from the big offices or from Central Command itself. "Oh, this is going to be annoying," I muttered. "Give me a moment. I need to mess with the security systems some more, and then we have another office to visit."

I couldn't outright disable security, that would get noticed. So would meddling. But small alterations and bits could work, Specifically a forced diagnostic cycle and programming it on the fly to ignore our specific life sign readings and then to self-delete the record when the automatic systems triggered a backup reload of detection parameters. Apparently the Cardassians knew about this trick already, blast it, requiring my extra work and limiting my window of opportunity.

"We're only going to have a few minutes, so I'm going to have to move fast," I told the girls. "Stay in the TARDIS."

I shifted the TARDIS out and into another office, that of a Legate - Ghemor, I think, which would make this supremely ironic - and stepped back out. The security systems were of diminished use, but only for the moment, so I went straight to the computer and began loading everything to do with Bajor into my sonic screwdriver's memory and, from there, into the TARDIS computer.

I kept an eye on the security systems as I did so. The forced diagnostic cycle was almost over; after that I only had seconds before the system responded to it by auto-restoring the base defaults, which I hadn't been able to access. From that point on the Cardassians would know someone was in here. And I didn't want them aware of that. It could change too much if there was such a high level security breach.

As a result, I left just as the diagnostic cycle finished. I rushed into the TARDIS as quickly as my legs could carry me and hit the lever to shift us out. I took in a deep breath and verified the shift, into a quiet solar system in another cosmos and ten thousand years in the past (a nice little "thinking" spot I'd once found, conveniently close enough to an old temporal shift to permit the TARDIS some refueling).

"Did you find out anything?", Camilla asked.

"Not yet," I replied. "We've got some work to do."

Indeed, a whole lot of work, it turned out to be. It was only a day later, after sifting through innumerable amounts of reports on logistics and production and security, the death warrants and official sentences for Bajoran prisoners and all sorts of the terrible minutiae of paperwork that a police state used that was so dry that it could be hard to remember it resembled a life about to be broken in the cogs of the Cardassian State, that I found what I was looking for in the guise of the minutes of a joint meeting of Central Command and Obsidian Order leadership with the heads of the rubber stamp Detepa Council. I skimmed quickly, my Time Lord brain allowing me to quickly memorize the data, the names, who said what and what I knew of them. I reached the conclusion and put a hand to my head.

Janias had noticed my feelings and looked up from the files she was reading. "Doctor?" This prompted Camilla to look up as well.

"Those..." I drew in a breath and used a reference in the minutes to look for - and yes, find! - another file I'd copied over. As I read the plan before me I felt my heart grow cold and my stomach churn.

"Doctor, what have you found?', Camilla asked.

I looked up at them, tearing my eyes from that horrible document. "The Cardassians aren't planning to withdraw from Bajor," I announced. "They're planning to _destroy_ Bajor."

* * *

My Companions read the materials I'd found in turn. "They're just going to bomb it to rubble?"

"Not just bomb. Those are persistant radioactives, Bajor would become uninhabitable outside of the control zones they marked," I pointed out, sitting and thinking. "It's pettyness, pure spite, born out of pride. They can't keep the Bajorans subdued so they're going to poison the well."

"The Sith would approve," Jaina muttered darkly. "So what are we going to do?"

I looked up. "Stop them, of course. Which means we encourage them to see leaving Bajor is a better outcome for them. They're doing this because they think withdrawal will look embarrassing."

"So we... embarrass them into leaving?", Camilla asked.

"Exactly." I stood up. "Which means something other than just blowing things up. We don't want to kill the Cardassian occupation forces, we want to _humiliate_ them. And for that, we're going to need help. Of course, the help needs help first, so we have a stop to make."

"For what, weapons?"

"Something better." I smiled. "Good home cooking."

Guerrila cells aren't very appreciative of visitors.

This obvious fact crossed my mind as I stared into the phaser rifle held by one Shakaar Edon. A number of his fellow guerillas were bringing their weapons to bear as well. I scanned them and noticed that a head of red hair I'd been expecting to see was missing. "Ah, my apologies, didn't mean to startle," I explained, trying not to sound too urgent. "I'm the Doctor, and I've come with food for you."

A flicker of recognition crossed Shakaar's face. "You're the one who liberated Singha? And stopped the Drala Massacre?"

"Well, I can't take much credit for that last one, I just sort of stumbled in... but yes, that's me."

"What's going on?!" A confused voice, very familiar to me, called out from the back of the cave. My companions and I remained still and watched some of the fighters part to let Nerys step up. She got close enough to see me and stopped. "What... what are you doing here now? Come to tell us more about how you can't help?"

"Actually, I came to do the exact opposite," I answered. "First off, a hearty meal for everyone. No meat, I'm afraid, Air Acolytes are strict vegetarians, but Pema's a wonderful..."

"So nice of you to come and feed us, we'll die with full bellies," Nerys growled.

"Nerys." I sighed. I couldn't blame her for how she felt at this point in time. She'd yet to see how things would go and learn why I left her to live the life she'd seen. "I'm here because I've found out what the Cardassians are up to now, and they have to be stopped. I'm here to help you drive them off Bajor."

Nerys went quiet at that. "And how are you going to do that?", Shakaar asked.

"I'm glad you asked that," I replied. "Because tactics are going to shift a little if this is going to work."

"In what way? We're doing everything we can as it is, but..."

"Oh, this is something completely different. You're shooting and bombing and being general nuisances, but you're playing their game to do it. And the Cardassians are very good at brute force and terror and killing in the shadows. That's why we're going to shift tactics to something a little different. We're going to hit them where it hurts. _Their pride_." I smirked. "We're going to use the Occupation to turn the Cardassian Empire into the laughing stock of the Alpha Quadrant."

I could see I had their attention with that. "How?", Shakaar asked.

I smiled. This was going to be the fun part.

The Cardassian supply depots were fairly well guarded against infiltration by the Bajorans; understandable given the situation. But the Cardassians could only use so many troops per installation, and the trade-off of their vigorous perimeter defense was an anemic interior defense.

The TARDIS finished materializing and we emerged; myself, Janias, Nerys, and Nerys' friend Furel. "Do you have the devices?", I asked them.

"All here," was the reply I got from each, their satchels being held up.

"Right. Remember which ones go with which target. Get every computer linkup or power cell crate you can find." I pulled out my sonic screwdriver. "I'm going to be messing with their computers. Hurry, everyone!"

We got to work immediately, with Cami staying behind to monitor the situation from the TARDIS.

I won't bore anyone with the details, as this first infiltration proved surprisingly boring and uneventful. We did what we came to do and we left. Just like that. When we left, we left behind useless equipment and drained or sabotaged power cells, depriving the Cardassians of their war material.

And when we were done, I picked a different depot and we did it all over again.

These kinds of campaigns tend to be simplistic and not very exciting, as the entire point is to avoid fighting. So I won't bore you with every single little raid.

No, the important part was what came afterward.

"So the deliveries went as scheduled?", I asked Shakaar, sitting across from him in he cave his forces called home.

"They did," he answered.

"So now is our chance," Nerys said. "We can launch a major attack and take them by surprise."

"No." That got me looks, so I continued. "That's not how we're taking advantage of this. I've got a better idea."

Labor camps spotted the Bajoran countryside, centered around mines or what little arable land was left that allowed the Cardassians to make the most efficient use of the forced labor.

One of these camps, Rolek, was our first destination. A few resistance cell members slipped into the general population and began agitating for an uprising. The Cardassians detected this, sure enough, and the Gul in charge decided to make an example of the agitators with an impromptu firing squad in the camp's commons area.

I stood, watching, in a raggedy old cloak, as the Gul gleefully pronounced sentence and called out the countdown to the squad. I saw them flinch a little as he ended the countdown with "Fire!".

Nothing happened.

The Gul in question yelled at his men to fire, and they tried again. Nothing. Their rifles were dead. They didn't know that, of course, but my sabotage had been meant to hide itself until this moment of decision.

The call went out to change weapons, and they did, but to no avail. The Gul's face contorted into frustrated rage as he yelled an obscenity and demanded, "Don't you incompetents have any weapons that will work?! I don't know who is responsible for this, but I..."

Ah, my cue.

"Hello there, my good Gul," I called out, stepping out from amongst the crowd and casting off my cloak. Eyes turned on me and my clearly Human-looking appearance. Janias and Cami took up positions beside me. "I'm the Doctor, and I thought I would share a point with everyone." I held up a finger toward the Gul. "He has maybe 100 armed men in this entire facility, and their guns don't work anymore. There are almost seventy thousand of you here. I would suggest that there's nothing keeping you good people from leaving at your own will."

"We will execute the families of anyone who leaves!", the Gul retorted.

"Assuming you can find them with all of the damage I've done to your database," I pointed out.

I knew that I had made a name for myself due to Singha and the other prior incident, and a name and legend are pretty powerful. Combine that with the clear effectiveness of my actions and, well, I'd done what I'd needed to do; the Bajorans were ready to ignore the blowhard and run for it. Which they did with abandon. Some went to ransack the mess hall, others to collect prisoners who were still in tents, and in general the entire camp was preparing to empty.

"Arrest him!", the Gul ordered, pointing at me.

"You'll have to find me first," I replied, pulling the cloak back over my head and merging with the press of Bajorans rushing for the gate. Word had spread sufficiently that the entire camp was now rushing to leave, and there were only a couple of Cardassians at the gate to hold it closed. With a quick press of a button to my sonic screwdriver, the electronic locking system disengaged and the gate swung wide open.

I slipped through the crowd and back in toward the camp, or rather to the nearby alley between prisoner barracks where the TARDIS waited, invisible. I stepped inside and found my Companions with Nerys, who was using a comm unit I'd set up to speak with the other groups. "Everything going well?"

"Half the labor camps on the planet are having the same thing happen," Janias answered. "It's extraordinary."

"That space station is going to be a problem though," Camilla pointed out. "All they have to do is start transporting troops..."

"That's why we're going there next," I remarked, reaching for the TARDIS controls.

I materialized the TARDIS by reactor control on the station. Janias and Nerys accompanied me this time, the former with her lightsaber and the latter carrying a Bajoran phaser rifle. A sweep of the sonic screwdriver opened reactor control to us, and upon entry we were faced with three Cardassian work crew and a Bajoran technician. Janias lifted her hand and slammed two of them together. My sonic disruptor knocked the third down. The Bajoran looked at us with wide-eyes and scurried into a corner.

Nerys was probably the reason, since she had a vicious look on her face at seeing him. "The only way he would be in here is if he was a collaborator," she said.

"He's not what we're here to deal with," I reminded her, heading to a control station. "Looks like they're already preparing troops. And these rifles aren't among the ones I sabotaged. Hrm, dicey... ah, here we go. Remote transporter control. This will be useful." I worked the system, watching the operators on Ops trigger the transporters... and promptly beam the troops about six feet above a rather cold lake in Bajor's northern Hemisphere. "Knowing how Cardassians hate the cold, that should be most infuriating. See, Nerys, isn't this..."

I turned in time to see her leveling her phaser at the head of one of the knocked out Cardassians. I reached over and grabbed the phaser just before she fire, sending the brownish phaser beam into the nearest bulkhead. "What are you doing?!", I demanded.

"Getting rid of a Cardassian!", she retorted.

"That's not what we're here to do, Nerys!"

"It's what _they're_ here to do," she retorted, her voice full of rage. "I don't know what kind of war you think you're fighting here, but I've been fighting in it since I was a child, and we're not going to win by just taunting the Cardassians! We have to show them that we can hurt them!"

My eyes met her's, and I didn't let the intensity and hate I saw in Nerys lead me to blink. "No, you have to show them that you're not worth the trouble! Because this, shooting helpless men? That's how _they_ wage war, and the only thing you've gotten fighting them this way is getting them angry enough that they're ready to turn your homeworld into a radioactive cinder! There is a _better way_, Nerys."

"It's easy for you to believe that. You didn't see everything they did. You haven't _lived_ with the Occupation," Nerys countered. "You haven't seen the atrocities they've done. They _deserve to die_, and I'm not going to feel one damn bit sorry for killing them no matter what you say, Doctor. You can judge me all you like and it's not going to mean one damn thing!"

I remained silent as she spoke. When she was done I nodded quietly. "You're right. My judgement isn't the one that's important. _Your's_ is. And that's why I'm begging you to take this, the better way. Do it so that in the future you can look in the mirror and judge yourself with no regrets."

We remained focused on each other for several seconds.

"I'm never going to regret killing Cardassians," Nerys insisted, breaking the silence.

"Not right now, you're not. But things change, Nerys. Everything changes."

There was a beep in the air that directed our attention. "_Ops to Reactor Control, someone answer me or I swear you will pay for your incompetence!_"

"Well well, looks like we got their attention," I murmured. "Now comes the fun part." I went over to a control near a wall panel and used it to check on the status of my little sabotage operations. When that was done I triggered internal communications to give me a direct video link to Ops, and specifically the commander there. A familiar visage of a Cardassian filled my screen. "Good day!", I said cheerily. "Gul Dukat, yes?"

Dukat's eyes narrowed. "And just who are _you_?!"

"Me?" I smiled. "I'm the Doctor. And you're just the man I wanted to talk to. One moment!" I held up the sonic and used it to remotely trigger a nearby panel. The swirling effect of a Cardassian transporter beam surrounded Dukat and made him vanish from the screen.

Nearby a similar effect began, resulting in Dukat's materialization in our midst. He looked around in surprise and anger. "Gul Dukat, it's about time we talked," I said. "You've been having some troubles with your Occupation lately, right?"

"I don't know who you think you are,'Doctor', but I am warning you, you have..."

"...'I have trifled with forces I can't hope to face, I'm going to be killed or destroyed or whatever blah blah'," I finished for him, waving my hand dismissively. "I've heard the speech before, Gul, and by far more frightening things than you. Let's skip to the point, shall we?" I used the sonic again. The station's main power core went down at my command, taking out transporters and weapons and shields, just about everything but life support and local sensors and a few other vital systems. "They call me the Doctor. I'm sure you lot have heard of me by now. I am a Time Lord with enormously advanced technology and science at my beck and call." I smirked. "And I am here to inform you and your superiors, Dukat, that I know of what's being planned for Bajor, and that I'm giving you this one chance to call it off and leave this world, never to return."

Dukat stared at me like I was a madman. Which, well, I was, just not for the reasons he undoubtedly thought. "Do you seriously intend to challenge the entire Cardassian Empire, Doctor?"

"Intend? Oh heavens no." My smirk turned into a wide grin. "I already _have_." With the press of a button I brought up a view of Bajor on the largest monitor in Reactor Control. "You lot moved into Bajor when it was helpless, and you've made yourselves rather too cozy here, like a bunch of bad, rowdy, and entirely uninvited house guests. Well, that ends, and it ends now. Bajor isn't helpless anymore, Gul Dukat. It is _defended_." I did my best to channel Ten when I said that. "And since I'm a sporting chap, I'm going to give you lot one chance to leave, peacefully. You won't get another."

Dukat opened his mouth to speak, but I didn't pay attention. With Janias and Nerys beside me, I took my TARDIS remote in my hand and summoned it. Dukat watched us all disappear within a blue box marked "Police Call Box".

Inside the control room, I grabbed and pulled a lever, shifting us back to Shakaar's HQ planetside. "What did you just do?", Nerys asked, almost breathless.

"Oh, I presented what they call an ultimatum," I answered. "Very important part of diplomacy."

"But Dukat... he's going to..."

"...order a slaughter? When he can't trust his own systems and the occupation troops can't trust their guns? No, for the moment he's going to try to keep things running as usual and save his own arse while waiting for Central Command to get its bombardment fleet armed."

"So we didn't stop them? Your 'better way' didn't work?!"

"Give it time, Nerys." I winked. "I knew full well nothing would stop that fleet from coming. In fact, I'm rather counting on it arriving at Bajor."

"But..."

"Come now, so little faith, Nerys?", I asked. "Everything is going according to plan. And when it's done, they're going to wish they'd never thought of sending that fleet."

* * *

Looking back, I was becoming far too showy. That whole bit with Dukat? Entirely unnecessary. Done only for my own enjoyment because, in case you haven't noticed, I'd become quite the arrogant git.

And someone else would pay the price.

We were back in the caves Shakaar's cell used, and the mood was... fairly optimistic. The Air Acolyte cuisine appealed to the Bajorans, even with the lack of meat, and the Cardassians' newfound impotence due to Time Lord sabotage was lifting spirits across the planet. The danger wasn't over, not by a long shot, but everyone could feel good about how we were humiliating the Cardassians.

And then it was all ruined.

Someone monitoring the planetary communications network came running up to where we were eating. "Shakaar, Doctor! The Cardassians are burning the Rakatha Valley!"

"What?", Shakaar asked, as incredulous as I was. I brought up the screwdriver and used it to remotely access a system to give us audio from Cardassian communications.

"_...destroyed, Gul Dukat. Is this enough of a statement for you?_"

"_No, it is not. Move on to he next village in the valley, Gul Ukrell. Take no prisoners._"

"_Yes Gul._"

"I thought we hit every depot?", Janias asked, bewildered.

I had thought so too... and then I pu two and two together. "Oh, that crafty bugger... that crafty, crazy bugger."

"What?"

"The shuttles," I replied to Cami. "Dukat used the shuttles' transporters to ship down enough guns for an atack. He must have his technicians constantly working on them to keep the transporters functional. Shuttle transporters aren't meant to do much, after all."

"So we need to catch them by surprise," Shakaar said. "We get them into a trap and start shooting."

"Good idea. The trap, I mean. The shooting can come at the last resort."

Nerys snorted. "Yes, we wouldn't want to harm those Cardassians busy burning our villages and killing our people."

"Oh, we're going to harm them," I promised. "And in a way that will really hurt. Cami, go get those field generators. We've got to do this quickly and quietly..."

Rakatha was not the most hospitable of valleys even before the Cardassians came. The soil was coarse and meager and the weather nasty; the people living here had little.

And the Cardassians had come to take even that.

I stood alone in the valley, waiting as Bajorans fled around me, not looking back at the invisible TARDIS or the field emitters we'd hidden around us. Above me, in the crevices and rocks of the foothills, Shakaar's cell waited patiently, weapons drawn, ready to attack if it came to that. And perhaps not even then. Their confidence in me was notably undermined by my failure to anticipate Dukat's ingenuity.

I couldn't blame them.

Cardassians marched before me, a Gul coming up to the lead. I suppose that was one mark in the bastard's favor; he was committing butchery, but he was in the forefront along with his men instead of leading from behind. Clearly he wasn't a coward.

I was going to change that.

"Gul Ukrell!", I called out, waving a white flag above my head. And then I waited to see if I was going to have to dive for cover.

I almost did, but Ukrell ordered his men to lower their weapons. They continued on with him until they were about fifteen feet from me, at which point they stopped. Weapons came up, not at full readiness but to show me I would be shot the moment their commander allowed it. "A flag of surrender?", Ukrell asked. "And you would be the Doctor, yes?"

"A flag of truce, actually, for negotiation. The association with surrender comes purely from the occasional outcomes." I lowered the makeshift flag, and pressed a button along the handle's surface as I did. "I've come to offer you a chance to save the lives of your soldiers, Gul Ukrell."

The Cardassian smirked. "Really? What would kill them? You, Doctor?"

"Oh, plenty of nasty things could happen in these wilds. Predator animals, for one thing. Ambushes. Tripping and stubbing your toe. I could go on. But we, and when I say 'we' I mean you, don't have time for that."

Ukrell laughed at me. "I have almost a thousand men behind me. What do you have?"

"Well, certainly not a thousand men," I conceded. "Just the resources and knowledge of a Time Lord, about fifty Bajoran resistance fighters, one very passionate young former Jedi aching to slice you to bits, her girlfriend and her mass effect assault rifle... oh, and..." I held up my sonic away from the Cardassians and triggered it, bringing up an energy field from the emitters we had placed around the valley. "...one very effective dampening field tuned to Cardassian phasers."

Ukrell stared at me while his men started to check their guns. More and more did so and found the same result; their guns were showing an error warning stating that they could not fire.

For the moment, I held the upper hand. But only for the moment; the field wouldn't last long.

Ukrell looked around at his men and go the confirmations that their weapons were now useless. He looked back at me and, likely, above me to the ridge line, where Bajorans appeared with rifles and guns already pointing down.

"Fifty of them, a thousand of you. Twenty shots from each and the odds will be a lot more even, accounting for misses or multiple shots on the same man. And now you can't shoot back."

Ukrell pulled out a combat knife. "We could kill you first," he pointed out.

"Certainly you could, but your men would still die," I answered. "So the question is, Gul Ukrell... do you care about your men?"

We met eye to eye, our lives in his hands. Odds were I'd regenerate, of course... well, unless the field failed and the entire plan was ruined and then I'd probably get vaporized. But I wasn't thinking about that, oh no. My mind was on the destroyed villages, the inncoent people hurt because of the Cardassians... and because of me.

And that made me angry. It made me so angry I was ready to shout for Shakaar and his people to shoot anyway, damn what happened to me, to make sure these killers got what they deserved. But I channeled my anger in another direction.

"If you care about your men, Gul Ukrell, you will order them to drop their guns and run away," I said. "And I do mean run away. I want to hear you say it, I want to hear _all_ of you screaming '_RUN AWAY!_' at the top of your lungs! I want you fleeing in panic and terror like the Bajorans you've been butchering, because it's the least you deserve for the horrors you've committed. And when word of this gets back to your Central Command and you are disgraced, when little children on Cardassia come up and tease you as the Gul who screamed 'Run away!', I want you to tell them _why_."

My voice was starting to shake with fury by that point. Fury at myself and fury at Ukrell and his men. I brought a hand up, ready to give the signal to open fire. "Ten seconds, Gul," I said. After two seconds I pulled my thumb in. After another two my pinky curled inward. "Five seconds," I warned.

Ukrell was shuddering with shame and fear and anger by this point, but as our eyes made contact I knew I'd won. He had looked over the situation and known that he and his men would be doomed if they didn't get out of the trap, no matter how undignified their exit would be. "Run away," he rasped to his men.

I brought my ring finger in. "I didn't hear you. Three seconds!"

"Run away!"

My middle finger curled inside my hand, now more like a fist. "All of you, one second!"

"_Run away!_", Ukrell shouted, even louder than before, and this time his men joined in. Cardassian rifles began to fall into the dirt as soldiers turned and ran. The ones behind them saw this motion, heard the growing cry, and began to do the same. Soon "Run away!" was echoing down the canyon, joined by the tromping of boots as the Cardassians fled in the opposite direction and the growing laugher of the Bajorans watching from the high ground.

Cami emerged from the invisible TARDIS with her M7 Lancer in her arms. Nerys stepped out next, holding her phaser rifle and looking at me with some surprise. There was even more surprise on the faces of the Bajoran refugees we'd packed inside. "I didn't think you'd..." For the first time since I'd come to this timeframe, I heard real wonder in Nerys' voice. "You actually... made them yell that. You made a thousand Cardassians run away screaming."

"Well, more accurately, the dampening field and the guns above them made them do that," I pointed out. "I'm just the clever bugger who thought it up." I looked beyond her to see Janias looking at me from within the TARDIS. I could see concern on her face. I knew what it meant.

"The important thing is that we stopped them," Camilla said. "Now we just have to wait on that fleet."

"Yes." Even as I said that, I was already thinking about how I had planned to approach it... and how I _should_ approach it.

We had returned to one of the most intact villages to help the refugees get settled back in and, it must be said, to oversee the disposition of the dead. I spent my time using the healing equipment I had to treat the wounds of hundreds of Bajorans. They behaved like they were being called before a wrathful deity and left as true believers, which was not a behavior I wanted to instill.

When it was over I looked out at the ruins and thought I could hear, in the winds, the accusing voices of the slain. This was my fault. I had underestimated Dukat. I had been too arrogant, too uppity, too _showy_.

The Doctor must always be a showman, but it's a poor showman who doesn't know how to tailor his act to the audience. And the Cardassians didn't humiliate easy or well.

"I need a new plan," I murmured to myself. "And I need it now."

I spent the next day in the TARDIS, pondering things, examining the situation and trying to find a way around it that didn't involve massive destruction. I poured over the data I got from the Cardassian systems to get an idea of who I was dealing with. Their decision to destroy Bajor was explained, but on closer examinations of other meetings I could see that, in context, it was not a unanimous decision. It was a decision driven by hardliners who didn't want to just leave now that they'd stripped the system bare. To them, the Bajorans had defied Cardassia and had to be punished, brutally.

But there were other figures. More... pragmatic men, or idealistic, who thought such slaughter would be wasteful and would backfire on the Cardassian people. They were just a few votes shy of taking charge of Bajor policy. If a few fence-sitters could be tilted...

An idea formed in my head, an alternative to just trying to humiliate the Cardassians into leaving. There was, ha, a better way to do it.

Simply put, I would make the Cardassians decide to leave on their own.

Of course, I had to talk to someone first. Someone with insights into the Cardassian authorities, and who might have formed his own views on the plans against the Bajorans.

I used every stealth measure when I shifted the TARDIS, and the girls and I stayed inside and quiet as we watched what was going on with external sensors. It was only when we could be sure of privacy that I activated a further measure to hide my life signs from the station's sensors and stepped out of the TARDIS.

I scanned through the shop and to a desk, occupied, with the shop's entrepreneur sitting and reading over a PADD. He didn't look up, but he did clearly detect my arrival. "You're the Doctor, I imagine?"

"I am."

"Well, I certainly hope you came to shop, I'm afraid blue is an unfavorable color at this time of year, and I can do you far better." Garak set the PADD down and smiled at me. "So, Doctor, I imagine you have disabled internal security so we can talk in privacy?"

"To some extent, yes."

"Then allow me to add to your efforts." He pressed a button on his controls. "One can never be too careful with privacy, and I regard the bond of trust between a tailor and his customers to be most important."

"I imagine so."

"Now, as much as I think you could use a better vest, I'm certain you're not here to talk about your suit?"

"As you know, I have another matter in hand," I answered. "This... regrettable problem of Cardassia's solution to the issue of Bajor."

"Oh my, yes." There was something in Garak's reaction that told me he was not favorable to the "bomb them to radioactive rubble" solution.

"And since your customers trust you so well, Mister Garak, I'm imagining they have told you something of the shape of that solution?"

"Yes, they are rather chatty about it," Garak said. "I think it's because of my charming manner. It's second nature."

"That it is. My issue is that I cannot permit that solution to come about. I favor a different solution, that is, the benefit of _distance_ and preservation of good will and resources."

"I admit I have my own misgivings about the plan, though I would miss my fellow Cardassians," Garak replied. "Unfortunately, my people can be rather obstinate, Doctor. You have made them look like fools and oafs, yes, but that will only make them more dedicated to the fulfillment of their solution to this Bajoran Problem. I'm afraid you've showed a critical lack of insight into the nature of the Cardassian mind."

"So I've noticed." I put my hands together. "I think I have a better insight now, won by that failure. I believe it better to convince your government to change back to the withdrawal plan. But a few votes will need to be swayed."

"Ah, yes. It can be hard if you don't have the right information." Garak let out a sigh worthy of a stage actor. "I do apologize, Doctor, but while I do have some information from people back home, information is not like wine; it grows stale with age."

"Indeed." I reached into my pocket and pulled out an isolinear rod with some juicy bits of data on it. "Perhaps if the product was more fresh?"

Garak took the rod and read the contents.

And then we were silent for several minutes as he read intently.

"Well well," Garak finally said. "Some rather good pieces of information here, Doctor. If they knew you had knowledge of these things, half the Central Command would be hiding under their beds and the other half would be dedicated to your destruction at any cost."

"I imagined so. This information is very potent. It has to be handled with delicate care."

"I think I can give you a few suggestions, Doctor, on worthy recepients of these facts that would sway the plans of the Central Command," Garak answered. "It will be just a moment."

My next stop was Cardassia Prime and the residence of one of the legates who opposed the radical solution: Tekeny Ghemor. A dissident in truth, but he was good at hiding his opposition to the Cardassian junta. Given his later connection to Nerys, there was something poetic about coming to him for this.

I was waiting for him when he entered the room. "Hello Legate. Please, no need for phasers, I'm here to offer you a deal."

"I've heard of you," Ghemor said. "They call you 'the Doctor', an unknown agent helping the Bajorans. You look Human, is this the Federation's doing then?"

"Oh, I have no affiliation with them. They take exception to my nature," I replied. I reached into my pocket and set a data rod on the nearby mantle. "This is some information you might find useful if you want to keep Cardassia from going down in infamy amongst the powers of the Alpha Quadrant."

My choice of words was all he needed to hear; he'd said similar in the meetings on Bajor's fate. "I see. The information will have to be good to sway the fence-sitters. The powers that favor the bombardment are very powerful men, not easily crossed."

"I suspect they will be more humble as this information makes its way through the Central Command," I answered. "And now, Legate, I must be going. I find Cardassia... rather unlikeable, I'm sorry to say." I turned to step into the TARDIS.

"Given your power, you could do this violently," Ghemor pointed out. "You've already shown a talent for sabotage. Assassination isn't far from that. But you don't seem to want to kill. Why is that?"

I stopped and remained silent for a moment. Turning back, I said, "Because then I couldn't be the Doctor. I can't cause death like that, not when there's a better alternative. Even tyring to humiliate your people was the wrong approach, and I see that now."

"I see. Well, I have some reading to do. We haven't got long before the fleet is finished with the preparations for BAjor, I'll need every moment I can get."

"Your people are counting on you, Legate," I said. I let my expression harden. "Because this is me trying to be nice. If I have to, I'll go the other route again, anything to keep Bajor safe. It's under my protection now, and I want Cardassia out. You've done enough harm to those people."

"You may be surprised how many of us agree with that sentiment, Doctor." There was a hint of fatigue, perhaps even shame in Ghemor's voice.

"It's why I think you deserve this chance to handle it yourselves," I pointed out. "My best wishes to you. I hope you see your daughter again one day."

I didn't stay to see his reaction.

* * *

We had nothing left to do but sit and wait, so to speak, and allow the wheels of intrigue to turn on Cardassia. Granted, we didn't stay idle. I had other sources for food and medicine besides Pema's cooking, and there were Bajorans in need of both.

During a rest period I sat alone in the library, looking into space, going through my head and trying to sort my thoughts. I heard a noise from the doorway and looked back to see Janias come in. "Ah, hello Jan. Come to scold me?"

"You seem to be doing a pretty good job of that yourself," she replied, working her way to a seat. "Hey, you made it right in the end, okay?"

"Tell that to the dead." As I said that I felt a different guilt begin to creep into me, and the vision of two hourglasses with Aurabesh writing. "What do you want to do, Janias?"

"Excuse me?"

"You and Cami? What do you have planned for the future?"

She sat here for a moment, not speaking further. When she did, it was to shrug and say, "Well, we haven't really talked about it. You don't give us a lot of time to think about things, especially recently."

"So no desire to find a nice home somewhere and spend your days with Cami?"

"Well... I suppose we've thought of what it would be like to have a nice home to ourselves in some valley on a Core world. But those are just fantasies we sometimes have. We'd never abandon you."

I nodded at that. "I understand. We've been through so much, it's just..."

"What?"

"Janias... I'm going to live for at least a thousand years, without counting any regenerations I have left left. You and Cami have such short lives by comparison, it would be wrong of me to keep you from enjoying the time you do have."

"You're not keeping us from anything, Doctor. We _want_ to be here, with you, traveling in the TARDIS."

I nodded at that, having expected the answer. "Alright. But do me a favor, Jan?"

"What?"

"If that ever changes, if you and Cami ever feel like it's time for you to move on and get a normal life together, tell me. Don't hide it just because you feel the need to keep me company. I'm worried about your welfare, not mine. If you feel like you're ready to settle down, let me know."

She looked at me for a moment before nodding. "Okay Doctor, we will."

We were working with Shakaar's cell, handing out food, when the news came. The young man monitoring the communications system rushed around, telling everyone that the Cardassians had announced their plans to withdraw over the course of the next half-year. I could see the disbelief on everyone's faces at this development. The odds against them had been so bad for so long that they couldn't quite believe that the day was coming when the Cardassians would be gone. And when they realized that it was true, that they had won, they would finally entertain every dream they'd ever dared to have over these long, hard years. Here was the seed of Bajor's challenge; dealing with the dashed dreams of every fighter who believed getting rid of the Cardassians would mean instant paradise.

I knew I was not wise enough to fix that problem for them.

There were no cheers or celebrations. I suspected those would come later, when the Cardassians were actually gone, when it was clearly not a trick. They'd gone through too much, had too many dashed hopes, to do otherwise.

My reaction was to return to the TARDIS and sit in the control room, deep in thought.

I'd done it. I'd saved Bajor. But it had been a close thing. My plans had been entirely wrong from the start, and only a last minute change had allowed me to snatch victory from the jaws of, at best, stalemate.

I didn't see the door to the TARDIS open, and didn't know who had come to speak with me until Nerys sat down beside me. "The Cardassians are really pulling out?"

"Yes," I replied. "I was able to tilt the balance in their government toward withdrawal. It won't be easy, but it'll keep your world intact."

Nerys nodded in silent reply, clearly lost in thoughts. When she finally spoke again her voice lowered. "Is this why you didn't let us stay with you? Because you knew I'd play a part in helping you save Bajor?"

"No," I answered. "The best is still to come for you."

"Is it?" Nerys looked at me. "How? What's left for me? I don't know how to do anything but fight, and that will be over now."

"Just because the Cardassians are leaving doesn't mean Bajor won't need protectors, Nerys," I pointed out. "And you'll be one of the best."

"How? Just... please tell me how."

"I can't tell you everything, Nerys. That knowledge would cause you to make different decisions. It would change your fate." I saw her look and sighed. "All I can say is... you will serve Bajor proudly at the most important post you will ever have. You'll make new comrades and find new friends and become something... wonderful."

"And what about the Cardassians?", she asked. "They did all of this to us and they're just walking away. Do they ever get punished?"

I smiled thinly. "In time, Nerys, the Cardassians will be handled. It's not something you should worry about. You're going to have a free homeworld soon, you should enjoy that. Let the future tend to itself."

She nodded at me again. But I could see the anger broiling in her eyes. "I hope you're right. Because right now I feel like the Cardassians are getting away with everything they did to us."

"They'll come to learn the errors of their conduct."

There was nothing more for her to say. As she returned to the TARDIS door I called out to her. On getting her attention, I said, "Remember that there's a better way than just lashing out. Hatred and anger will only cause you grief in the long run, Nerys. Don't let it consume you."

"I'll keep that in mind," she answered. Nothing more was said as she left the TARDIS.

I knew from the tone of her voice that she wasn't convinced, that she was still angry and bitter and vengeful. She would take that feeling with her to _Deep Space Nine_, and there... there her life would begin to change. She would get to know Odo and Chief O'Brien and Dax, she would find the Emissary of the Prophets in her superior officer, and she would meet Aamin Marritza and find that not all Cardassians were evil. She would fall in love with Bareil Antos and get her heart broken by his death.

And she had to do this by herself, without forewarning from me, to become the person that I would eventually meet again.

When I thought those things, it was about my past meetings with her future self, on the station and Bajor and getting her help with the Air Nomad situation, hearing her laugh as Sven the reindeer ran me over in Arendelle and getting blown around by Tenzin's children while trying to skate in Elsa's iced over courtyard... all the memories of her I had at the moment.

I had no idea that the most important thing to come from our meeting at this timeframe lay ahead in my future. Kira Nerys had yet to play her most important part in my story. It is a part that I shall get to eventually.

Only after I had my hearts broken, of course, by what lay in store for me and my Companions.


	5. Short 3 - A Colorful World

**Short 13 - A Colorful World**

There are, as you expect, some worlds where things are less, well, normal. Where fantastic things of all origins come together in ways you wouldn't think possible. The worlds with spandex-wearing vigilantes can be one example; aliens and sorcery and meta-genetics oh my.

And then there is _this_ one.

Admittedly, it's not one I sought to see, but when I spot instabilities and disruptions consistent with multiple temporal events - time travel, that is - on a world at the start of the 21st Century, well... I'm a Time Lord. I'm drawn to check these things out.

The girls and I left the TARDIS in some back-alley and started walking about, my sonic held up as I scanned for signs of temporal energies or other forms of disturbance. "This looks like any other world of the time you showed us," Camilla remarked. "Although I don't recognize the city."

"Well, we haven't been to too many. Chicago, Melbourne, finally getting to see London..." I eyed a signature of energy coming into range of my sonic and led the girls down the street. "Didn't catch the name of this one, looks a bit like California I suppose."

"I saw a sign for 'Silver Hills Tourist Office' on the other side of the street."

"Silver Hills?" The name made me blink. "Where have I heard of that before?"

"Is it special?"

"Well, not particularly. I mean, a name like that, just need to have somewhere that people find silver in and make it a little hilly. Boom, Silver Hills." I looked back to the sonic. "I just feel like I've heard that name before. I can't place it. And put the lightsaber up, Jan, this isn't the place for it."

"There's something wrong," she answered. "We're in danger."

"When we're fighting something, you can bring it out. If we're not seen. But until..."

I was rudely interrupted by two things. One was my sonic picking up a major source of energy.

The other was a small explosion.

The side of a building, one of the banks it looked like, exploded outward and things started to pile out. They were a dull orange, almost yellow color, with a blade held in one arm, and at their lead was a lady in a bizarre white suit (if you could call a plastic-looking halter top and shorts a sit) that clashed with hot pink hair. She had bags in her hands, undoubtedly ill-gotten gains.

Something really yanked at my head. I'd heard of this world before. But I still couldn't place it.

"Attack everything in sight, we want to make a scene," the young lady instructed her minions. They rushed forth, pouring out of the building and towards the crowds.

"Jan..." I didn't have to say any more, Jan's lightsaber came out. I brought out the sonic disruptor and keyed the sonic to disrupt the approaching robot things. When it didn't I stared at them, and my sonic, in confusion. "A deadlock seal? Here and now of all places?"

"You mean your sonic won't work on them?"

"Not in the way I was hoping. The sonic can't interfere with their electronics or access their programming."

Janias waded into the approaching gaggle, her lightsaber swinging. She cut a few done, but the enemy was fast, and I noticed she was making far more effort with her cuts than usual; something of their structure made them resistant to the lightsaber's blade. And Janias was going to get overwhelmed quickly as a result.

I was still stuck in my wondering just what the hell this world was. It was clear that time travel was heavily involved, as the woman and those robots were permeated with temporal energy consistent with not just temporal displacement, but prolonged exposure to the center of a temporal event. And there was something about the bots that seemed familiar, some quality to them that...

I figured it out a moment later.

I hadn't seen the vehicle or vehicles that brought them, but there were now five people running toward the rush of robots. There was nothing special about their clothing and appearances save the one with green hair... of course, this was California so even that wasn't too far out of the way, and I'd seen Molly Carpenter's myriad hair colors anyway. In one movement they struck up a uniform pose and revealed the devices on their wrists.

"Oh, _this world_," I sighed.

They shouted, as one, "_Time for Time Force!_"

As energy surrounded and shifted them, Cami looked at me. "You know who they are, Doctor?"

I watched as the five, in their color coded suits of red, pink, blue, yellow, and green, charge into the mass of robots. "They're Power Rangers," I answered. "The time traveling ones. This is one of the more... soft metaphysical worlds out there."

"Good fighters, though," Jan noted, walking up to us and observing the impressive martial arts techniques being employed. The robots had diverted their attention entirely to the Rangers at this point, needing the numbers to keep the fight going. "Do we help?"

"If they need it," I remarked. "This does explain the temporal signatures the TARDIS detected. They're constantly opening temporal rifts to summon their big robots to fight monsters, after all."

"But why are they fighting here?" Camilla looked around. "That lady ordered the robots to attack. I heard her say something about making a scene."

"A distraction of some sort," I said aloud.

"Or a trap," Cami added. "And they wouldn't know it."

"Yes. Still..." I checked my sonic. "An energy source is coming from... that building." I pointed to one that looked like it had a warehouse and office blend, overlooking the square where Time Force was locked into combat with the... the... _whatever-they-weres_. And I could see movement on the roof, although not quite make it out given the distance and angle. "Come on!"

We took off, skirting the battle as we did, for the building. Janias Force-pushed a few of those robots out of the way so we could get to the fire escape, where she used the same power to pull down the ladder and allow us to start climbing. It was a eight story building so it took a bit, but at least we had nothing chasing us.

We were on the seventh floor when a burst of green energy erupted from somewhere on the roof, heading to the square. From our corner of the fire escape we could look down and see what was happening. The five Rangers fell to the ground, covered in green light, and were promptly back in their civilian forms. I looked at my sonic. "Oh dear, disruption field keyed to the energy signature they use for their technology, that's not good. Jan!"

"I'm on it." Janias turned and went back down.

Cami and I continued to the top floor where we found the pink-haired girl from before and a very peculiar robot with a hunched neck and golden colored surface, both fussing over what was clearly the emitter device for the disruption field. "You would be Frax and Nadira, I presume?", I asked aloud. "Leaving what's his name... Resick?... Rusick?... Ransik, yes, leaving Ransik to attack the depowered Time Force Rangers."

"Who are you?", the robot asked in a high-pitched voice.

I smirked. "Oh, me? I'm the Doctor. This is Camilla." Without turning my head I held out my sonic disruptor to Cami. "Setting 4, brute force blast. They're all deadlocked, after all."

"Right, Doctor."

"Whoever you are, you're too late to save the Power Rangers from my father!", the woman shouted.

"My dear, I'm a Time Lord," I replied, arms folded. "I'm never too late."

Not the most clever banter, perhaps, a bit on the boastful side... I guess I was just getting into the spirit of things. When in Rome...

They prepared to attack but Cami struck first, bringing the sonic disruptor up and triggering it with enough power to knock both to the ground. I ran up to the device and began scanning it with my sonic. It was deadlock sealed as well, which meant I was going to have to reprogram or shift it the hard way.

Which it didn't look like I'd have time to do, given that a big man with long, curly, greasy-looking dark hair was standing over one of the fallen Rangers with a sword. That would be Ransik, who at least was not as bizarre or laughable a villain as a woman with a shrieking voice and horned hat who made monsters called things like Pickel Sneezer. He let out a yell and brought the sword up to inflict a blow.

"Stop!" Janias shouted even as her arm flew forward. Her Force power slammed into Ransik with enough force to send him plowing through his robots and into the nearest building. Her lightsaber flashed to life and she sliced through the robots that got in her way. I noticed she was becoming more tactical in her thinking, not simply swinging away at whatever presented itself but picking her cuts to cripple the robots in the first or second strike, making every stroke count given their resistance to her saber. The others got back to their feet and rejoined the fight as best as they could.

Ransik got back to his feet, growled, and went straight for Janias as she sliced a robot's head off. His sword struck her lightsaber successfully and the two began to duel.

That, of course, meant I had to get to work, and I did, finishing scans on the device and starting to try to alter its settings manually. It had command code lockdowns and other things to prevent sabotage, so the going was by no means fast.

"Doctor!" Cami's shout drew my attention briefly. More of the robot things were coming onto the roof and helping Nadira and Frax up.

"Oh bugger," I grumbled, trying to redouble my efforts while Cami tried to fight them off with the sonic disruptor. The sonic scanned and my hand moved over the controls repeatedly, finding out more and more of the device's makeup. One particular item won my immediate attention.

My attention was quickly ripped away as Camilla was knocked over and I was hauled up by the golden robot. I smiled at him, opting to throw him off a bit. "Did you build this? This is bloody marvelous! A great piece of engineering! I really like that quantum signature scanner you've got in there, been looking for something like it for a while. Just where did you get it from? Or steal, I suppose."

"I'm so glad you like it, Doctor," the robot giggled. "But it's not going to do you any good!"

I brought my sonic up and triggered a sonic burst from it, but the robot's body was just as deadlock-sealed as the others and I couldn't overload him on the inside. By making him stagger backward I'd bought myself a second, long enough to see Camilla getting overwhelmed and having the sonic disruptor torn from her grasp. Frax's arm came up and he prepared to, well, either hit me or shoot me.

Before the robot could hit me, a battle cry sounded and a figure slammed into him, foot first.

In all the excitement I'd forgotten; there are usually _six_ Power Rangers per team.

The sixth one, in a red-looking suit himself but with the visor design having a jagged edge instead of straight, knocked Fraxi aside and went to work on the robots with, I must say, excellent efficiency. Camilla pulled herself free in the resulting chaos and got the sonic disruptor back, allowing her to begin blasting more.

The sixth Ranger turned to me, allowing me a good look at, well, it's a helmet with a red eye visor and a silver, unmoving mouthplate that includes a little sculpted mouth. Don't ask me why they're designed like that. "Who are you?", he asked.

"I'm the Doctor. Consider me a friend. You?" I offered a hand.

He took it, and the grip was pretty strong. "The Quantum Ranger." His voice had a clear toughness in it.

"Ah, of course you are, very appropriate name and all," I mused. "I'm something of an expert on quantum things myself. If you can cover my back, I should be able to get this device switched off so your friends can access their power again."

"Right." He returned to the fight, covering Camilla's back as well. Camilla wasn't using Setting 4 anymore; instead I recognized Setting 8. Setting 8B, that is. Of course. Even deadlock-seals couldn't stop... you know, I suspect most of you don't care for the exotic energy science that would go into this explanation, so I'll get back to the fun part and just say that Camilla had done something brilliant that I hadn't thought of. There were times I really wished I could turn the girl into a Time Lady.

I went back to work on the device. Disconnecting the quantum signature scanner came first for two reasons; it was what allowed the disruption field to isolate and disrupt the "morphing grid" as they called it... and because I needed it for another, very important project.

As I did so, I looked up and watched the progress of the fight. The depowered Rangers were, well, doing their best, but they were clearly hurt and the robots were quite powerful. As for Janias... it was youth and raw power versus experience and talent. For all I could rely on her Force powers and lightsaber skills, it was easy for even me to forget that Jan was just a very talented Jedi Padawan in training level, and she didn't have the skill or endurance that a Jedi Knight possessed. I watched her favor her left hip, clearly having taken a hit there, but keeping Ransik off-balance with the occasional shove using the Force. But he was a powerful opponent; I knew Janias could fight him for only so long, a point reinforced when he struck her again and, this time, hard enough to send her flying and knock out her holobelt, causing her real appearance to come out. I had to hurry.

So, quantum scanner safely removed and tucked into my jacket pocket... that left, well, other technobabbly-sounding things I had to do. I had to disconnect the phase alignment controls, change the settings on the quantum transtator coils on the generator, re-align the sub-spatial emitters and finally shut down the... okay, okay, I'll stop dropping technobabble and call it the thingie.

Anyway, once I'd mixed the thingamabob and the doohickey the right way with the right settings the entire thingie went on the fritz, and deciding to enjoy the melodrama of this world, I looked out over the fight below and bellowed, "_**Ransik!**_"

He turned back from where he'd knocked Janias down, enough that she was on all fours and hadn't recovered.

"_I think this belongs to you!_" I put my hands on the device and, with a grunt of effort, shoved it over the side of the building. It fell the eight stories and smashed into the ground where, due to some playful alterations I'd made to its capacitors and systems, it made a rather satisfying KABOOM.

Ransik made a rather satisfying, entirely overdone "NO!" at that.

As for the Rangers, they put two and two together rather easily. They fell back on one another and, reunited, activated their wrist devices again. There were more robots to be found - where did they get all of these bloody things? - but they were just distractions to allow the villains to get away. Since, of course, that's usually what villains _do_ in these circumstances. Although, to be fair, keeping the robot minions off hurt people (including Janias) was an important task, and one that Cami and I joined in quickly (the Quantum Ranger, being someone infused with incredible performance-enhancing energy _and_ a bloody show-off, went down the fast way by jumping off the bloody building).

And I'm afraid the excitement ends there, since we had no more fighting to do, focusing on the rescue part while the Rangers did the fighting part. But at least there wasn't a big monster. I can do, easily, without big monsters stomping about the city.

Not the type to fight and run, we followed the Time Force Rangers to their clock tower home to have a comfy place for a proper greeting. We stepped into the top of the clock tower - how appropriate, that - and I looked around. "Ah, nice and cozy."

"We like to think so." The leader, Wes, had only a low residual temporal signature on him; he was, I recalled, from this time. "So who are you again?"

"Oh, me? I'm the Doctor, and I'm a Time Lord. My Companions Janias and Camilla. You'll have to excuse Jan's appearance, she's a Mirialan, not a Human."

"Well, whoever you are, thank you for the help." The young lady speaking was... what was her name?... oh yes, Jen. Sorry, I'm not so familiar with this cosmos, the only reason I even knew names to begin with was because of Linkara, or rather the chap playing him.

...and I just had the thought that the "Channel Awesome" crew is in a cosmos out there. Sometimes the Multiverse gives me headaches.

"It's just something I do." I waggled my sonic. "I can't resist a good mystery, like sustained time travel signatures in 2001 Earth."

A blue robot owl flew around me, hooting. "Time Force doesn't have a record of you, and we've tracked down time travelers everywhere," one of the others - the kid in green hair - pointed out. "I mean, at least logged them."

"Well, I travel six dimensions, through other cosmoses, all the time. Not all of them know me. Honestly I prefer it that way. I get skittish around time cops."

"Especially when they're trying to shoot us," Jan remarked drolly.

"Well, that's Lucsly. Still not sure what I did that set that man off." I drew in a breath and watched the owl move away. "Ah, mascots. You know what we need for the TARDIS, girls? A mascot. Something cute."

"Uh, no," Cami insisted.

"Oh come on."

"No," Jan agreed.

"Seriously, girls? Harry's got Mouse and Mister, Korra and her friends have Pabu and Naga, even Commander Shepard has her hamster. It'd be..."

"Doctor, no."

"It's not like I'd go back to that pony cosmos and invite..."

"_NO_," they insisted in unison.

"You two are no fun," I sighed.

"Why don't you stick around for a bit, Doctor?", Wes asked me. "Have some dinner with us, we can get to know each other."

I smiled and nodded. "Well, being a time traveler means I don't really have a schedule to keep and I have all the free time I want, so I've got no objections, do you girls?"

Cami shook her head. Jan replied, "No, I'd like to get to know them, I like their fighting style."

"We can say the same," the other young lady - Katie, I believe, the Yellow one - said. "Saving us and going one on one with Ransik like that, I've got to know how you did it."

"I'm sure you would..."

And so we spent the rest of the day and evening with them, talking time travel and adventure and watching Janias flip the Blue one around a bit in "playful" sparring. I may not have been interested in this world before the visit, but I had to say I enjoyed it.

It was good to have pleasant memories here, since eventually... I would face one of my most deadly challenges on this world. Most unexpected, and that is a story I shall save for it came in another, more dangerous time, toward the end of my story.


	6. Episode 3 - A Small Favor

**Episode 11 - A Small Favor**

It had to happen eventually.

I knew it the moment I gave him the means to call me, in fact.

My Companions and I were enjoying a little holiday on a resort planetoid and had returned to the TARDIS when the call came into the TARDIS phone. I picked it up. "Hello there."

"_I need a favor, Doc._"

Straight to business. I immediately had an inkling as to why.

"What is it, Harry?"

On the other end, Harry Dresden replied, "_You know who the Nickelheads are, right? Since you knew about Lash._"

I drew in a breath. It _was_ what I feared it would be. "Yes, I know who the Denarians are."

"_They have a young girl, Doc._"

"Ivy," I sighed.

There was a moment of silence on the other end. When Harry started speaking again, I could sense a shift in his emotion to anger. "_So you did know this was going to happen, didn't you?_"

"Yes, Harry, I did."

"_Then why didn't you Goddamned warn me?! I could have stopped them from..!_"

I drew in a breath and rested against the rail. "I told you before, Harry. If I gave you knowledge of how the future was going, you would make different decisions, and it would change things. And not necessarily for the better."

"_How do you know that for certain, dammit?! You could make things better!_"

Harry had me there. I could, conceivably, alter things here and there to give them better outcomes. But then his decisions would change. He wouldn't make the same choices. And when the time came, he might not have the power, through those choices, to stop the horrible things that were still to come.

_But would he need that power if I was there to help?_

As I thought about that, I realized the answer was still yes.

"_So that's it, Doc? You're going to leave a twelve year old girl to be tortured and abused by the Nickelheads?_"

My mind flashed to a poor young girl, uncovered in the cold with bruises and cuts all over her, held in mid-air by intricate magics meant to keep her imprisoned while horrible creatures nipped at her.

How could I say no to helping her?

_How could I not help and continue to be the Doctor?_

I swallowed. "Harry, I will come and do what I can. But there are things that are about to happen that... if they don't happen, it will make things worse in the long run. I promise you, however, that I will make sure we get Ivy away from the Denarians."

Harry was silent. By using "we" I'd reinforced whose side I was on.

"You can't tell anyone I'll be there, though. You need to behave as if I'd said no, like I didn't even exist. Please, Harry."

There was more silence. "Alright," he said. He hung up a moment later.

"Doctor..."

I looked up to see Cami and Janias looking at me intently. I explained, as quickly as I could, the situation; what the Denarians were, what they'd done, what was at risk. I told them who Ivy was; a twelve year old child and the repository of the Archive, a living database of everything ever written down on Harry's Earth, with awesome magical power in addition to that.

"We can't just leave her with them," Janias insisted, snarling. "I say we show up and help Harry fire-blast those things into smears."

"And that would cause changes to his timeline in far greater amounts than rescuing those Air Nomads did in Korra's," I pointed out.

"Doctor, I'm worried about something else." Camilla took a seat on the stairs and looked at me intently. "What if we've already changed how things would progress?"

"Hrm?" I looked at her.

"Well... we weren't exactly unnoticed when we've acted in Harry's world before," she continued. "Korra nearly drowned the Merlin! And we've humiliated the Red Court a few times just by ourselves. The forces of that world know who you are, they have an idea of what you are, and they know that you're friendly to Harry. Anyone coming to Chicago has to be ready to run into you, and if this Nicodemus is half as smart as you make him sound..."

"...then he'll be anticipating my presence," I finished for her. "And will have brought extra resources he otherwise wouldn't have used."

"Exactly."

I drew out a sigh and flopped into the stairs nearby, looking to the girls after I did so. "Damned if I do, damned if I don't."

"If we've already tilted things, why not just go with that?", Janias asked. "Let's just help Harry!"

"There's a difference between taking a plunge and just making sure everything is balanced," I pointed out. "We'll go and observe. If something unexpected happens, we'll address the change, and _only_ the change."

"Doctor, what about the girl?" Janias was still plainly unready to give the matter up. "She should be rescued."

"And she will be," I promised. "Harry will win so long as everything happens as normal." I stood and reached for the TARDIS controls. "We're just going to make sure things go that way." 

* * *

I knew better than to bring even a veiled TARDIS too close to the participants, lest we be discovered, so I had to settle for long-range observation. Nevertheless it confirmed for me that things, so far, were going as scheduled. Harry, without any other means to find the Denarian base, had made Nicodemus an offer he couldn't refuse: Ivy for the coins of the Denarians that had been defeated at the Shedds Aquarium and _Fidelacchius_, the Sword of Faith, entrusted to Harry to find a new wielder after the last one died fairly gruesomely, at the Denarians' hands no less. Of course, Nicodemus would have no plans to honor the exchange, and Harry knew that, but going through the motions would involve letting Harry and the others be brought out to where they were keeping the Archive prisoner. An island in Lake Michigan, a very particular and special island that had a looming role to play in Harry's future.

So I made sure that Harry, Michael Carpenter, and Michael's fellow Knight Sanya, a black-skinned Russian man wielding _Esperacchius_, were on their way to the "exchange", aka the Trap. Insert your Admiral Ackbar joke here. I know Harry would.

Then, to be certain, I made sure that Thomas Raith's little houseboat and Miss Gard's Huey helicopter were on their way as well.

And so we shifted to the island itself. It was easier said than done; the field around the island was tricky to bring the TARDIS through, and I only managed it as far as I did because I brought it in high enough that I wouldn't be breaching what was inside the island. Instead, with all stealth measures engaged, I landed it quietly at the back of the hillside that dominated the island, where the Denarians were already gathered with their armed soldiers.

Janias' face twisted into horror and anger. "Doctor, there's so much darkness here, I... how can something like this exist?"

"It's from a wellspring of dark power on this island," I explained. "I dare not explain more."

"I feel her," Janias continued. "She's so afraid... Doctor, please, let's go get her."

"Can't," I answered. "There's too many of them. Even with Harry and the Knights we wouldn't have the advantage, and it would change too much if we did. Harry will be doing that. We will be making sure they didn't add further surprises for Harry."

"Really? They're that powerful?"

Jan nodded and answered before I could. "Each one has more darkness than any Sith Lord I've ever seen. And I'm not sure they're any weaker than Malgus and probably stronger."

Cami turned a little pale. She remembered Malgus too.

I didn't dare leave the TARDIS, especially when I heard footsteps coming through the forest of the island. Armed men came up within twenty feet of the TARDIS, and faced the hillside. They had been carrying something, but I hadn't made it out.

"I think the show is about to start," I murmured.

From where we were, there was no seeing the actual hill, so all I could make out were the sounds of people walking and talking. Soon enough I heard the familiar baritone of Harry and, after that, another voice, calm and level and quite sharp.

Nicodemus Archleone, leader of the Denarians. And someone that even a Time Lord would definitely _not_ want to cross if it could be helped.

I suddenly found myself wishing I'd invited Korra. Or Commander Shepard. Or, frankly, _all of them_. Because if this turned bad... I might do some damage with the sonic disruptor, and Janias could definitely tear through the mortal gunmen, but the Denarians were fearsome combatants that were extreme dangers to Harry and his friends, and as far as combat goes I'm honestly not that effective at anything but running and playing with technology.

Harry's voice began to rise, to the extent that we could all hear him. He demanded Ivy's release. One of the female Denarians pointed out that they could just take the Swords and coins from him, and played up the idea that he was actually under Lasciel's control still (Lash, that is, the Fallen Angel that Nicodemus had plotted to slip into Harry's brain to corrupt him. It hadn't worked very well).

"Doctor, he's losing his temper," Cami murmured. "That's not good."

"No, he's not," Jan explained for me, undoubtedly sensing his emotions through the Force. "He's... acting?"

"Nicodemus was trying to bait him, and Harry is playing along to buy time."

I heard Nicodemus order "Kill them!"

A moment later, bright orange and red light erupted from the hillside.

"By the Force, what was..."

"A surprise flare to catch them off guard," I remarked. "And a signal flare for that helicopter."

A fight briefly broke out and, from the distance, we could hear the sounds of it and the occasional flash. I kept my eyes on the armed men nearby, knowing they were oblivious to us thanks to the TARDIS. They hadn't moved yet. But they were fussing with the package they'd brought.

There were more flashes of energy in the distance. "Now he _is_ mad," Janias remarked, even as Harry's screams of outrage filled the night air. I felt energy shift and tremble. He was destroying the Archive's prison.

Then there was a burst of purple energy and an angry howl in the air as the prison failed. "I... I thought I saw faces," Janias murmured.

"Possibly," I agreed. "I'd rather not know."

Quiet resumed, followed by gunfire focused on the tower and some cracks of gunfire from it. When it was over Nicodemus' voice filled the night air. "Dresden!"

"What's he doing?"

"Offering Harry his life if he gives everything up," I replied.

"He doesn't know Harry," Janias said, smirking.

"Shh." I was focused on the nearby men, who were still crouched in preparation. They had yet to act.

And then I heard strings in the air, soon joined by horns. I smiled.

"Is that... music?" Cami asked.

"Wagner's 'The Ride of the Valkyries'," I replied. "Miss Gard's well-chosen _leitmotif_."

From the eastern end of the island the Huey helicopter we'd watched take off flew in. At the side door a man - one of Marcone's lead henchmen - opened fire with a mini-gun and wrecked havoc on the Denarians' mortal followers and, I suspected, their numbers as well.

From the angle I saw a winch lowering a harness. As it turned out, so did the armed men, who brought up the objects from their package.

And despite the sleet and gloom, I could just make out the box shapes of shoulder-carried man-portable anti-air missiles. Firing from what would be the blind side of Harry and his allies.

"You were right, Cami," I breathed, pulling the sonic screwdriver out. "Jan, they've got anti-air, we need to take them out!"

Janias pulled her lightsaber and jumped from the TARDIS entrance. The lightsaber slashed cleanly through the launchers and the limbs holding them. The screams that came from the armed men had a bizarre sound to them, the kind of wail that can only come when you don't have a tongue to change the sound from your mouth.

"Doctor, there are more!", Janias shouted.

"Stay with the TARDIS, Cami!" I brought out the sonic disruptor as well and charged into the sleet. I had the foresight to be wearing my purple parka - this at least didn't make me look like the Joker - over my suit, and it kept me warm against the chill on the island. The island was dark and it was hard for even me to see, but I had Time Lord senses and Janias had the Force. We spread out, not needing to speak a word in coordination, and went after the other fire teams carrying missiles and, as it turned out, rocket-propelled grenades.

I used a sonic burst to disarm the nearest fire-team and then the second-nearest, with follow-up shots from the sonic disruptor to send the armed men down so I didn't get shot. Behind me there was an explosion; Janias had used the Force to, presumably, cause a grenade to explode prematurely, taking out the armed men firing it.

I glanced to the hilltop. The new angle meant I could see the helicopter. There was a figure in the harness, actually a figure holding something, and almost up to the helo itself. Harry and the others were looking toward the direction of the explosion.

I looked back in time to see another group of men, hidden enough that I hadn't seen them yet, firing a missile at the helicopter. As flame erupted from the launcher I had my sonic up and whirring. The missile corkscrewed in the air, narrowly missing the helicopter, and exploded in mid-air safely beyond it.

With a sonic burst I put down the men who had nearly killed the people on the aircraft and scanned the gloom for more. I saw movement further down and ran toward it. A single object began to pop out from the brush and, this time, I would not let them fire. I used the sonic to send off a strong thermal pulse, enough to...

The explosion flowered along the hillside, setting trees aflame and, it had to be said, killing the men with the weapons instantly. The flames were a beacon of light and warmth in the sleet and gloom of the island and I allowed the crackling fire to dance over my vision, close enough that I could be seen from the hilltop. I looked up.

Harry was looking down, toward the fires, and thus toward me. I could make him out from what was left of the lighting on the hill-top; he could see me far more easily and know who it was. I nodded at him. He returned the nod and turned to accept an object from the second man going up the line.

I almost yelled a warning. I knew the Denarians would pounce soon, that Nicodemus' treacherous wife Tessa and her lieutenant would strike as Harry sent Michael up the line. Michael would be gravely wounded, permanently crippled in fact, and the helicopter damaged, forcing Harry to fight his way off the island. If I went up there I could prevent it...

I could change what was about to happen.

I could save Michael Carpenter from his fate... a fate that, on consideration, was almost a divine blessing, an act of God to reward a servant by giving him relief from his heavy burden. Instead, by acting, I could cause the Denarians to change targets. They might kill Sanya instead. They might kill Harry. Kill me permanently with a fatal wound during regeneration.

Or kill Janias, who would undoubtedly rush to aid me.

That was the problem with events like these. I had the burden of knowing how they should go and how meddling could make the outcome worse instead of better. But that meant inaction, and allowing painful things to happen.

I turned and ran back into the forest. _Jan, get back to the TARDIS, NOW_, I thought, feeling her mind probing mine.

_Already there_, she replied.

I sighed. I'd done what had to be done. It was time to stand back and let events play out as they needed to.

We stayed in the TARDIS for the rest of the night, observing from sufficient distance how everything went. We remained in mid-air as Harry piloted the boat he'd been brought in on out to the reef and, from there, left the failing craft to get into his brother's houseboat.

White light erupted from the figures struggling in the dark below, forcing me to close my eyes. We could hear one of the Denarians shrieking in despair before retreating. When it was over, Janias had a shocked look on her face. "Doctor, what was that?", she asked softly.

"A job offer," I replied.

"What?"

"Karrin Murphy grabbed _Fidelacchius_ and pulled it from the scabbard," I explained further. "A very important event. Now you see why I couldn't just intervene.".

"Because that wouldn't have happened." Camilla nodded.

"Exactly." I sighed. "Still, we're not done yet."

"Oh?"

"We have one more stop to make," I explained. 

* * *

I swapped my blue coat for a white one to fit in, with Jan and Cami in nurse scrubs, before we stepped out of the TARDIS in an empty room in the Stroger hospital. With my psychic paper held open and clipped to my coat and Janias subtly influencing others walking by us, we evaded attention until we arrived in the ICU's prep room for patients between surgeries. I presented myself as a specialist looking up a new patient for a consultation and the nurses, busy as they were, didn't think much of letting me in to the room.

It was empty for the moment with just the unconscious patient. I walked up and looked over the wounded body of Michael Carpenter and lowered my head. I could have saved him from this... but I had not. In the name of the timeline, and of his family and a much-deserved retirement, I'd left him to be hurt. Crippled.

I heard a sniffle behind me. Camilla was crying. Janias was starting to weep too. I wasn't surprised. The Carpenters had treated them almost like adopted daughters on the occasions we'd seen them. Janias saw Michael as the exemplar that all Jedi Masters should seek to match.

I looked back to Michael and put my hand on his. "I'm sorry, Michael," I whispered, trying to keep the tears from my eyes as well. I brought up my sonic and ran it over his body. So far the damage was what I expected, but I wanted to make sure...

Brain damage, more than I expected. But something I was prepared for.

I reached into the lab coat and brought out a transmat injector filled with a regenerative agent I'd acquired from Layom Station. I injected it directly into his carotid. It wouldn't be kept in the bloodstream to show up on blood tests, thankfully; it would find damaged and destroyed cells and be absorbed by them, damaged cells would be healed, dead cells would be used as raw material to form new living ones. The dose I gave would be sufficient to ensure Michael, while crippled, had his faculties. He would not be reduced in mind as he was in body.

"Doctor..."

Janias' strained voice made me look up. Against all expectations, a custodian was at the doorway, a face mask dutifully applied. The old man pulled the mask down, smiled at me, and nodded.

I noticed that the name tag read "Jake". And I drew in a breath, not saying anything as he continued on with his cart.

"H-He... he wasn't..." Janias was stammering. "W-What was...?"

"He works for Michael's boss," I answered quietly. "Let's just leave it at that."

* * *

After we left, Jan and Cami made a request of me; they wanted to wait with the Carpenters. So I materialized the TARDIS outside and let them go in while I remained outside. I... couldn't face Charity and the children right now, not when I was the one who could have spared them this heartache. I simply stood in the snow and waited, thinking to myself of the conundrum of this situation.

"Doctor."

The voice made me spin, unnatural as it was. I looked further down the alley I had parked the TARDIS in and found...

The figure in front of me was female, in a dark blue business suit detailed with diamonds. Lapis decorated the ivory sticks that held the braided bun of long white hair on her head. She was hauntingly beautiful, lips a faint red, and eyes like a cat...

Fitting, since there was a cat in front of her, and even in the twilight of the alley I could see the creature was a muscular thing, larger than a bobcat or a lynx.

My voice froze in my throat. I knew who this was, I _knew_. Among other things, she was the reason that the city was snowing so early in the year.

Mab.

Mab, the Queen of Air and Darkness, reigning monarch of the Winter Court of the Sidhe.

Mab, one of the incarnate forces of this cosmos, a being beyond the powers of anything I'd yet faced.

I forced myself to swallow and, despite the stiffness in my back, executed a courtly bow. "Your Majesty."

"Your respect is well-considered." Her lips moved, but the voice came from the feline with her. A malk, I recalled. Grimalkin, in this case. "I am not unaware of your connection to Harry Dresden, Doctor. You have played a part in these events and bringing them to my satisfaction. I thought to express my thanks to you."

I knew better than to believe that, but I also knew better than to be brutally honest about it. "Thank you for your gratitude, Your Majesty," I replied, waiting for the other shoe to drop.

It did. "I sense your mind has been taken from you," she said through Grimalkin, its voice making the words even creepier. "What would you give to have it returned?"

"Pardon me, Majesty?"

Mab smiled at me. It was a very chilly smile. "I have the power to remove that lock on your mind, Doctor. I can return the memories and knowledge within to you. You would be whole again."

At that, I drew in a breath. To remember who I was, to remember what I was, to have my memory returned... "And what would you want in return?"

"Three favors, of course," she replied. "You would be permitted to select which ones to fulfill, and would face no form of compulsion to take any individual request."

In other words, the same deal she imposed on Harry, with some changes to terminology.

For a moment I thought on it. There was a lure to having those memories back, yes. Mab undoubtedly sensed that bewilderment in my mind, always under the surface, of having so much of my life locked away from my thoughts. I had gone through so much pain and confusion as those memories drained away, pulled into the memetic box that held them from me.

But if I was going to get those memories back... there was no way I would do so in a deal with Mab. I, quite frankly, was not that foolish. You don't make deals with beings like Mab. _Ever_.

"I thank you for your consideration, Majesty, but I must decline," I answered as politely as I could. "Whatever I once was... that life is beyond me now. I have become something more. I'm the Doctor now."

"You say that now," she answered. Mab's expression became bemused. "But I think you will regret it soon enough. What will happen, Doctor, when your pretty young friends are gone?"

I frowned. I didn't like the sound of that. "My friends?"

"That dear green girl and her lover. They're your last link, aren't they? To the Humanity that was stripped from you." Mab laced her fingers together. "What do you think will happen when you lose them? When they decide to leave you? Or when you provoke the wrong foe and they die as a consequence?"

I remained silent.

"You will be alone," Mab continued. "With nothing but the path ahead, to be walked without someone by your side who would understand what was done to you."

I swallowed. "I'll deal with that when it comes, Your Majesty."

The bemused smile remained. "It is your choice, Doctor. The offer will remain open to you. Although the cost will not."

And like that, Mab was gone, leaving me alone with my thoughts and fears.

I had known for a long time I would one day lose Jan and Cami, even before Death gave me that stark reminder by showing me their lifetimers. Having Mab remind me of it forced me to consider it again, as much as I didn't want to. Especially her questions about what would happen when I lost them.

They were questions I couldn't bring myself to even think of answering. 

* * *

That night at the hospital Jan and Cami remained until the morning, waking me and letting me know Michael had awoken from the surgeries and was talking.

I didn't tell them about my conversation with Mab. I didn't want them frightened.

I decided to give Harry space by staying away for a time after the incident, shifting us ahead so that we would be around for when Michael returned home. Jan and Cami went with Molly and her mother to shop for the supplies for the coming home party, using a special credit card I'd rigged up (yet more of my irresponsible inflation of the local economy, I freely admit). This left me to show up at Harry's door and have a talk.

To try and lighten the mood, I brought beer. Not a very Doctor-y beverage, but one must account for other's tastes.

We went into the basement, Harry's lab, and each took a bottle. Harry eyed it and finally smiled. "Good stuff. What is it?"

"Timbiqui Dark," I answered. "From another cosmos, interstellar Human civilization and all. I received it as a gift from a ruler there."

"Alien beer?"

"Alien world, but made by Humans," I pointed out.

"Good enough." Harry took another quick swig. "Not as good as Mac's, but acceptably close."

"I have yet to partake," I admit.

"We'll have to fix that one day."

There was silence at that point. I pulled something out of my pocket. "Is Bob around?"

Harry looked up at the spirit's skull, surrounded as always by bad romance novels. The eyes lit up. "Heya Doc. Is it time for me to say 'I told you so'?"

"Not yet," I remarked wryly. I walked up and placed the data disc in front of him. "Can you actually... access this?"

"Hrm. I could try. What's on it?"

"It's something called Vaenia," I answered. "I thought you'd appreciate it."

Light from the skull played over the disc. "Is this... oh _wow_ Doc, are you into...?"

"I got it for you, Bob," I pointed out. "Although I suspect Jan and Cami have a copy too."

"Oh yowza, I bet they do!"

"What is it?", Harry asked from his chair.

"Asari pornography," I answered wryly. "They're a mono-gendered species so they all look female. Bob, can you take a quick look at..."

"Your head, Doc? Sure. Got to respect a guy who gives me something this juicy. Harry's been skimping lately."

"I told you, that author missed her deadline and the book's delayed," Harry retorted.

"Whatever..." Bob's light-up eyes focused on me again. "Yeah, it's... box is shut, Doc. Slammed shut, padlocked, and dropped into concrete. Even Molly at her best potential couldn't even begin to break that."

"It's what I thought," I sighed, rubbing my forehead.

"So do you even remember being Human?"

"No. Jan and Cami remind me I was, and that's how I know." I went back to my chair. "I've been looking around to see if anyone could stop it, but none have been able."

Harry looked up from the beer bottle in his hand. "Sorry to hear that."

I nodded and drew in a breath. "Mab says she can do it."

Harry's eyes widened and he had to swallow hard, so hard that if he hadn't I suspected we would have been showered in Timbiqui Dark. "_Mab approached you?!_"

"At the hospital, while the girls were up with you. She offered me a bargain, three favors and she would break the lock and restore my memories."

"Doc, don't tell me you actually agreed...?!"

I rolled my eyes. "Of course not, Harry," I scoffed. "I may be prone to arrogance and the occasional act of uppity foolishness, but I'm not _that_ far gone to think I can risk letting Mab in my head, or getting in her debt."

Harry sucked in a breath. "You don't want to get mixed up with the Sidhe, Doc. You just _don't_." He had real heat in his voice, heat I knew was earned by harsh experience with the subject matter.

"I have no intention to start." I looked at Bob, curious on a point. "Could she do it? As a matter of curiosity _only_, Harry."

"If you could trust her to, yeah, she might," Bob replied. "Of course, she might tear your mind to bits in the process. Blocks like that don't break easy, Doc, and it's not good to have someone wielding sledgehammers in your brain like that. Especially if the one holding the hammer is _Mab_."

"I thought so." I drew in a breath and took a drink of Timbiqui. It _was_ rather good.

Silence reigned for a while, save Bob's hoots as he enjoyed "Vaenia". Harry and I kept looking away from each other until he sighed and sat up. "Okay, let's stop avoiding this."

"Always like you to take the direct approach, Harry."

"Yeah." He looked at me, conscious to avoid locking eyes so we didn't accidentally soulgaze. "Doc, I have a question and I'd like you to answer."

"Ask away."

"In... whatever manner you know of what's happened in my world, and what's going to happen, was anything different from what actually happened on the island when we saved Ivy and Marcone?"

I looked toward him and nodded.

"What was it?"

"Those RPGs and anti-air missiles," I replied.

"You mean that in the version of events you knew, he didn't bring that firepower?"

"No, he didn't." I sighed. "And before you carry on, Harry... yes, I believe he brought it because of me. Cami has already pointed out to me that my actions on your world mean the forces here are going to start taking me into account in their plans."

Satisfied, Harry leaned back a little in his seat. "So where does this leave us?"

"You mean to ask if this means I'll turn down helping you to keep events from changing, even if they're already changing?", I asked pointedly.

"Exactly. If you'd just come along, we could have all piled in the TARDIS and gotten off the island after we freed Ivy. Michael wouldn't have gotten shot, I wouldn't have nearly gotten killed several times over, and..."

"...and Karrin would never have pulled _Fidelacchius_, revealing her ability to wield it," I finished for him, looking intently at him as I continued. "You never would have met Eldest Gruff and won his respect with your bravery and clever thinking. Nor would you have taken Nicodemus down as you did. Michael would be okay, yes, and in turn he would have avoided earning the one retirement from his duties that lets him be with his family. And you and I both know the usual retirement for Knights of the Sword."

Harry glared at me, clearly irritated that he hadn't yet thought that chain through completely. "Okay, yeah," he finally conceded. His eyes narrowed. "Wait, 'take Nicodemus down'? I left him for dead, Doc. You're telling me he _survived_ that?!"

I drew in a breath. "I believe so."

"You _believe_... what does that mean?! You can't even tell me if he's..."

"Dammit Harry!", I shouted. "I don't know _everything_ about your future! I only know _some_! So I don't know what changing the events I do know about can and will do to your future! And I can't even go into the future to look without meaning I can't come back and help because if I see how the timeline's going, and I change something in it that became a fixed point... well, Harry, take your pick. Do you want to see your cosmos' time space-continuum crunch down to a single point in time and then degrade into oblivion, or do you want to have bat-monsters showing up to eat everyone? I've heard of both flavors of Critical Existence Failure... and if you want to know what that is, ask Butters, he's got the Internet."

Harry rolled his eyes. "So you're just going to sit back whenever the going gets tough around here and I need help?"

I sighed deeply at that, trying to reign in my frustration. "No, Harry. It just means I have to be _careful_ about how I help you. I came to the island to make sure everything turned out as it should. I saw the change and I accounted for it. I restored the balance in the situation. I will make sure that the same stands for the other events to come, as far as I know what's going to happen."

"And after?"

"Then..." I sighed. "I'll do whatever I can to help."

Silence came in again, Harry mulling my words while I didn't want to reignite the argument. As I thought about it, I came upon an analogy that could work. "Harry, given your love of pop culture, I'm sure you've heard of Star Trek?"

He looked at me with a "duh" expression. "More of a Star Wars guy myself but yeah, I know all about Captain Kirk and co."

"What about Picard?"

"The bald English guy with the French name?" He shrugged. "Didn't catch that one as much, but I know about him."

"Do you recall a story, then, about Picard? About how his artificial heart was failing and was going to kill him? And how he was offered a chance to change his past, make it where he never lost that heart?"

Harry searched his memory. "Yeah, I think I remember that one." He frowned. "It messed his life up. He became a measly little science guy instead of a captain."

"Yes, and in the end he decided he'd rather die than live that life. The story was called 'Tapestry', because when he pulled at the loose thread in his life, it unraveled the whole design. I could do the same thing to you if I'm careless about how I help you. If I say the wrong word, allude to the wrong event, do the wrong thing... I could unravel the whole tapestry. It would have consequences far beyond whatever good I might do in the short-term. And so I have to be careful, Harry. I'm not saying I won't do anything, I just have to be careful about it."

Harry said nothing, focusing on finishing his bottle. "I get it, Doc, I do. I just... I know things are going to get worse, and I wouldn't mind the extra backup."

"I understand entirely. And I'll be here to help in any way I can. Just, please, understand why I can't just swoop in on every situation and change events."

"Yeah, I understand."

I said nothing at that point. I could tell I'd gotten through to him on the matter, but I knew it wasn't settled.

Because I knew what was going to happen soon enough. I knew about the little girl whose very existence would change his life forever and how he wouldn't give a damn about how many loose threads were pulled in the process of saving her. And I knew that I would be getting another call from him when that time came.

What I would do about it... I didn't know, and I would spend a long time considering, up until the very moment I got the phone call that would lead me to Chichen Itza on that fateful night.

As much as that seems a suitably dramatic ending to this, Harry provided levity. His head came back and a confused look came to his face. "Wait, due to all of that six dimensional stuff... doesn't that mean you've met Kirk and Picard and such?"

"Um, no. I've met Sisko, though." I smiled thinly. "I don't really get to see the Starfleet types. The Federation's Department of Temporal Investigations, their time police if you will, don't really like me."

"Oh yeah? Bet you get them really worked up with all that time travel."

"Like you wouldn't believe. Gariff Lucsly treats me like Morgan used to treat you."

Harry winced. "Ouch." He looked at the time. "They should be picking Michael up from the hospital now."

"Ah? Well, let's get over there then." I smirked. "I'm driving."

"I'm not letting you touch the _Blue Beetle_'s wheel, Doc. Given that accent you'll probably drive on the wrong side of the road."

"Cops won't pull me over for shifting the TARDIS after drinking," I reminded him.

"Oh yeah..." 

* * *

That night, Michael's welcome home party was, well, a blast. Mab was gone, but the atmosphere hadn't yet settled down and there was still snow on the ground from a fresh snow-fall in the morning.

Which meant, well... snowball fight.

So the Carpenter kids set up their snow fortresses and began flinging their cold projectiles across the backyard while we adults tended to Michael. He would be wheelchair bound for a while, but he was looking otherwise healthy. He happily accepted our presence and let Janias and Cami give him warm, tearful embraces.

I clasped his arm. "I'm sorry, Michael," I murmured.

"It was as our Father intended," he assured me with a small smile. "Thank you for helping. I knew Harry was not telling the whole truth when he said you wouldn't be coming."

"I asked him to say that. Couldn't let knowledge of my presence change how things were going."

After the early dinner, complete with Charity's admonitions to her children to clean up from the snowball fight, we all took to the backyard where Harry decided to have a projectile defense training session for Molly. She managed to stop four snowballs on each volley, getting some pointers not just from Harry but Janias, who responded to a volley from the Carpenter children with a gentle Force push that burst all the snowballs in mid flight. The children laughed and booed... and Janias shrieked as Camilla, smiling, put a handful of snow down her collar.

This triggered a general free-for-all, thankfully not interrupted by gruffs, that I stood away from. Charity walked beside me and looked up. "You're doing well, Doctor?"

I swallowed and nodded. "We're getting along, yes."

"It's good to see the girls laughing like that." She eyed me. "You didn't have snowball fights as a child?"

"I..." My head ached faintly as I probed my thoughts along the memetic box holding my memories of my Human life. "...I don't remember, Charity. My memories of my past were taken from me."

"I'll pray you get them back, then," she said.

I saw the smile on her face and twisted, my sonic up and active. Gentle sonic waves intercepted and dispersed the volley of snowballs thrown my way by the children. I clicked my tongue. "Sorry, little ones. I'm a bit too fast for that."

"Spoil sport!" Janias concentrated and used a Force push to send a burst of snow from the ground and toward me. I brought up the sonic disruptor and projected a sonic burst that blew it around me.

"Ha!", I shouted in triumph... seeing the smirk on Janias' face a moment too late to realize...

Snow suddenly went down the back of my collar, courtesy of a veiled Molly, who left footprints in the snowy ground as she ran laughing. I danced about, trying to shake it loose...

...and soon faced Janias' smirking face, a similar smirk on Harry's face as he brought his hand up to a large pile of snow beside him...

"_Forzare!_"

...and then I saw nothing but white as I was struck by a solid wall of will-propelled snow, enough to knock me over and just about bury me. As I tried to get back up the Carpenter children pounced, shrieking victory and stuffing snow down my parka collar.

"Alright!", I shouted, laughing. "This means war, Harry! War!"

"Bring it on, Doc!"

And so the Great Snow War commenced, and we laughed and shouted as the sides shifted and changed until, ironically, Harry and I were struggling to get the snow out of our jackets under attacks directed by Jan, Cami, and Molly.

We laughed and played long into the night, a night I will always remember with a smile.


	7. Short 4 - A Worthy Effort

**Short 14 - A Worthy Effort**

Retrieving the quantum scanner from that device of Ransik's and Frax's had given me the opportunity to resume a project. I already had some scans related to it, but they had told me that to fulfill my plan, I needed something more.

Hence the need for the quantum signature scanner.

Throw in a couple of days worth of work to make it compatible with other technologies and I had the device I needed for my project.

With a pull of the lever I shifted the TARDIS to my destination. It shook and rumbled beneath me, drawing the attention of the girls. They came into the control room, dripping wet from their interrupted swim. "Doctor, what's wrong?", Camilla asked, sounding worried.

"Nothing, nothing," I assured her, stepping away from the controls and up to the door. "Don't let me interrupt your swim, girls. I just have a small errand to do."

"Are you sure?", Jan asked. "We can come..."

"That won't be necessary," I answered, giving them a smile. "I need you to stay in the TARDIS. Please."

Camilla sighed and gave a shrug. Jan nodded in turn and the girls went back through the portal.

I stepped out of the TARDIS and into a familiar scene; a ruined city.

Specifically, the ruined city of Mitakihara.

Yes, I can imagine you understand what my project is now, can't you?

I moved along in the direction of the destruction and, as I'd planned, came up behind a shorter figure, complete with pink haired pigtails with like-colored ribbons. She was absorbed in thoughts enough that I walked up without being noticed. A quick scan of the sonic showed we were alone; none of the tell-tale signs of a detestable little bio-drone and hive mind scurrying about. Undoubtedly he had moved on ahead. This left me to approach her openly, my right hand gripping the object I'd slipped into my jacket pocket and pulling it out. "Hello there, young lady."

She turned around, surprised. "Uh... who are you?", she asked in confusion. "Sir, you shouldn't be out here, it's not safe."

I smiled at her. "Come now, Madoka, I can say the same for you."

"How... how do you know my name?"

"Oh, a lot of quantum wibbly-wobbly to explain there," I answered. "So, what are you doing out here, young lady?"

"I'm going to help a friend," she insisted.

"Oh really?" I slowed my pace to keep by her side. "She must be very important to take this risk."

"She's been fighting to protect me..." Realization came to Madoka's face. "You... you know Homura, don't you?"

"Ah yes, I do...", I admitted. "I'm the Doctor. And I was here during one of the times she fought this thing before. Sadly, I wasn't in the best shape to help. I fell off a skyscraper, I have to say."

"Then, you know I have to help her."

"I do," I replied. I gently set my right hand on Madoka's shoulder and knelt down beside her. "I won't keep you. Homura needs you, and I... I made a mistake with her and she's not very pleased with me, so it's best if I'm not there. But I wanted to speak to you before you made your wish." I directed my eyes toward her's and allowed a smile to come to my face. "I've observed you, Madoka Kaname. I know how you feel about your life, your fear that you have no worth, that you can only find worth by helping others. But you must surely know, now, that you are loved and that you have worth. You are a brave, compassionate, and caring young lady, and I'm honored to have met you. And no matter where your path takes you, I want you to know that you are not alone, and that you will never be forgotten. I'll see to it."

She was silent for a second. I brought my left hand up and let her take it with her's. "Thank you, Doctor," she said. "I need to go now."

"Yes, I know." I brought my right hand back, confirmed that the device I was holding in it had done its job, and put it back into my pocket. "Godspeed, Madoka Kaname."

I stood and watched her run along, to where she would save Homura from her despair and make the wish that would rewrite her entire cosmos, at the cost of her mortal existence. It was a grand sacrifice, but still a sacrifice, and one that should never have been necessary. One that would deprive this world of a gentle young girl that made it warmer by her existence.

I became aware of a presence behind me and was not surprised to look down into a pair of cold, alien eyes when I turned my head, allowing me to face the being responsible for the necessity of Madoka's impending sacrifice. "Oi, and what do you want?", I asked, allowing evident disgust into my voice.

Kyubey tilted his head at me. "Who are you? I can see you're not Human. And your mind has been altered. Would you like to..."

"No deals, Incubator. I'd rather accept Mab's help than yours." Yes, I considered being in the debt of the _Queen of the Unseelie_ to be a lesser evil than to making a deal with the Incubators. At least she only wanted three favors and not to eat my despair-crushed soul one day... well, not exactly, I suspect she'd gladly have me crushed by despair and turned into a servitor if she could make it happen. It just wasn't her main priority.

Actually, when you think about it, the Incubators aren't too different from the Sidhe in some respect, are they?

Anyway, I turned to leave. The Bunnycat of Lies hadn't given up yet, though. "Are you sure? It would be easy for me to open the block in your mind if you made a..."

"No means no," I replied. "Now hurry along, Hopalong, fixed point in time and all that. That's why I'm not going to channel enough disruption into you to give your entire hive mind a great big bloody headache. As much as I'd enjoy seeing you lot eaten by bat-monsters, I have to be the responsible adult and let you go grant Madoka's wish so that history turns out like the fixed point says it should."

"Are you..."

"I said _bugger off_," I demanded, turning long enough to give Kyubey just a bit of the disruption that, at full effect, would make his drone body explode in white fluff. He let out a little shriek of agony and scampered off.

Not as cathartic as I'd have liked, but I couldn't afford to disrupt the Incubators so much they couldn't grant Madoka's wish. I lowered my sonic back into my pocket and went on back to the TARDIS.

The girls were waiting for me. "Doctor, that's... Mitakihara, isn't it?"

"it is," I said as I walked up past the controls and down to the lower area, where I had a second device ready to plug into the first device. Green lights confirmed it worked and, smiling, I returned to the controls and saw their faces. "What?"

"Doctor, you didn't..."

"I did nothing to interfere," I said, looking to reassure Janias. "I simply furthered some arrangements. And made Kyubey squeal a little. That was an unexpected bonus."

"Then shouldn't we go?"

"Yes, yes we should," I said. As much as I would have liked to be there to give Madoka my support for making her wish, I couldn't risk it. I had to pull the TARDIS out of the loop, indeed, out of the cosmos entirely. So I sent us on our way. "So, that's done. Anyone up for some lunch? I've taken rather a liking to that little Water Tribe restaurant Korra introduced us to..." I let the discussion of where to eat come in as I considered what I had left to do for my project. I needed one more piece of technology to begin the assembly of the final device.

And for those of you disappointed that I didn't do more to the much-deserving Incubators... I had my plans for them as well. The annoying little buggers had it coming, trying to talk me into a deal. Bloody things have one track minds, and tend to forget that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.

Then again, they were used to wearing down the reluctance of emotionally vulnerable adolescent girls they picked as marks, so maybe I shouldn't have been so surprised by that.

Anyway, I had a plan for them as well. A rather fitting one, in fact, that I shall share with you when the time comes.


	8. Episode 4 - Parting Sorrows

**Episode 12 - Parting Sorrows**

As much as I regret it, the time has come for me to tell you one of the most painful stories I have.

This is the story of how I lost Janias and Camilla.

It began auspiciously enough. I needed one last piece of technology for my special project, and after mulling borrowing it from the Federation, I decided it would be easier to examine a similar device from another source, one who's cosmos I had recently become acquainted with.

The facility was well-lit for its owners, and we materialized in stealth mode to not set off any alarms. I stepped out and looked over the blue-surfaced computer control surfaces and equipment, waving my sonic around on a record mode linked to the TARDIS. "Quantum compilation technology, very nice. Not sure why they mixed it with digital card data storage though. You'd think a quantum state system would..."

"Doctor..." Janias gave me a look that told me "Stop with the technobabble and hurry up".

"Oh yes, right, right..." I went over to the colorful projector hanging down from the top of the room, recently assembled, and gave it a good scan too. "Quantum compiler, data integrator... very nice. I'll have to make modifications of..."

"Who are _you_?!"

The demanding female voice made me turn my head toward the opening to the chamber. A young lady stood there, flanked by humanoid minions with large two-handed blades that reminded me of _bat'leth_s, her hair colored a deep read and a cybernetic attachment of some sort on the right side of her face. Ah, _her_. I had been hoping to get out before they knew I was here...

"Me? I'm the Doctor. Just a passer-by, looking at some very interesting technology." I pocketed my sonic. "You would be Astronema, yes? Pleasure to make your acquaintance, we'll be going now."

"Take them!"

Janias' lightsaber flashed to life, slicing at the first minion to come at her and cutting its blade in two. I pulled out the sonic disruptor and fired a wide-arc burst that knocked everyone down. "Let's go!" I snapped my fingers, opening the TARDIS doors, and rushed into it with the girls. I ignored closing it for the moment, going straight for the controls and my pre-arranged escape coordinates.

And as I grabbed the lever and pulled, I regretted not closing them. immediately.

Astronema struggled to her feet as I yanked the lever. I snapped my fingers the moment her hand came up holding some sort of weapon. A beam of red energy lashed out, going through the closing TARDIS doors and slicing into the TARDIS engine. The VWORP VWORP VWORP turned into a shriek as sparks showered around us. I cursed my luck and went to work on the controls, trying to make sure we got back out of the Time Vortex and doing my best to avoid being thrown down by the rocking of the TARDIS The girls secured themselves quickly, aided by long practice, despite the flickering lights inside the TARDIS. I have to say, we had seen this happen far too bloody often. I needed to stop being so careless.

I would, obviously, have great cause to regret that bit of carelessness.

After the shaking stopped I went over to one of the screens to check on things. The damage to the engine was severe and self-repair would take several days. We were lucky that it lasted long enough to bring us back out of the Time Vortex.

"Close one."

"We need stealth devices," Janias complained, leaning on a rail. "Is that going to be the last technology theft we commit for a while, Doctor? Please?"

"I certainly hope so," I replied. "Now I need to find out where we are." I brought up external systems to get a star or planet reading, but found nothing of either; we were in a structure of some sort, or a ship. Definitely a ship given the sensor returns I was getting... "Damage to the systems, I can't see any more of what's out there."

There was a knock on the door.

I turned to Janias in the gloom of the damaged TARDIS and she nodded. She felt no immediate danger. I gave a hand to Cami, who'd gone to her knees holding on to one of the other railings, and once she was on her feet I walked past her and Janias to the TARDIS door. My hands gripped my sonic and my sonic disruptor tightly and Jan's hand went to her lightsaber, although she didn't turn it on. With my grip remaining on my sonic screwdriver, I used my right hand to open the door.

There was a figure in front of me, and beyond that figure were others, including a couple of fellows pointing weapons at me. Phasers, to be precise.

My eyes focused on the persons at my door, and their familiar uniforms. Branch colors on shoulders and black.

I almost cringed at seeing who they were.

"I'm Captain Kathryn Janeway of the Federation _Starship Voyager_." Janeway crossed her arms. "And you would be the Doctor."

The thought that went through my mind was simple.

_Oh bloody hell._

* * *

So the bridge of the _Voyager_. Oi. To think about winding up here of all places. And with lingering memories of the SFDebris reviews no less. I half expected to hear Janeway start talking like a mad scientist.

That she knew who I was, well... I had suspicions of that, even if Dax hadn't recognized me back on DS9 early in my journeys.

"A reputation precedes me," I said. "Although I'm curious as to which one."

"The one where you're the most dangerous time criminal listed on Federation records," Janeway answered. "Wanted for repeated violations of the Temporal Prime Directive."

"Really? I must say, I haven't done much at all in this timeline so far. Wait, is this about that business with Doctor Phlox and the cure for the Valakians? Because I have a very, very good explanation for that..."

Tuvok interrupted me at that point. "Captain, might I suggest that in our current state, we cannot act on Standing Order 30."

I looked at him in confusion. "Excuse me, I don't think I've heard that one."

"It was implemented at the request of the Federation Science Council and the Director of Temporal Investigations," he explained. "'If ever encountered, every attempt to incarcerate or neutralize the being known as the Doctor must be made.'"

My jaw dropped. "There's an entire Starfleet Standing Order on me? That's... bloody overkill, that's what that is." It was quite stunning to realize that Starfleet felt it necessary to devote an entire Standing Order to me.

Then again, I'd one day learn why they did it.

"Mister Tuvok's right," Chakotay remarked stoically. "We've got bigger concerns."

I noticed that the _Voyager_ running lights were set to lower power with red alert lights.

And then the ship shook underneath us.

"The Borg cube has locked us in a tractor beam." Harry Kim was at his chair-less station. Why haven't these people ever heard of chairs? Even Sisko has them on the _Defiant_.

My thoughts at the moment were focused on the same problem that had the _Voyager_ crew's attention. "_Borg?!_" Some terrible thoughts crossed my mind. Namely, the thought of the Borg somehow assimilating the TARDIS.

Or us.

I ran past Janeway and up to Kim's station. "Hey!" he protested as I knocked him aside and began operating the Okudagram interface.

"What the hell are you doing to my ship?", Janeway demanded even as I had phasers pointed at me.

"Saving it," I remarked. "Ah, navigational deflectors. Almost as versatile as a sonic screwdriver."

I did something... enormously complex in terms of technowizardry, worthy of the most obtuse technobabble you've ever heard, and used the navigational deflector to form a specialized field around _Voyager_ that even the Borg tractor beam couldn't hold onto. The ship lurched ahead again, under Mister Paris' expert hand, and went back to warp. "That should confuse them for a while," I muttered. "I'm not sure if they can adapt quickly to that, but I've got a few other tricks if they do it quickly."

I looked at sensors and saw the Borg ship was following. I let Ensign Kim make the report, though. "The Borg ship is hanging back at a distance of about one parsec."

"Just far enough behind that they can see any traps we lay." I sighed. "There goes the plan for the quantum disruptor mine."

"Quantum disruptor mine?", Kim asked in confusion.

"I thought you'd know by now that quantum can do anything, if it's the right kind of quantum," I joked. "Subatomics and probability are so fun to play with." I stepped out from Kim's station and back toward Janeway. "Captain, I'm not sure what I've done to earn the ire I've gotten from DTI. It's probably from something further down my timestream, so finding out about it would be most annoying since I don't like the thought of being forced to do something lest I cause a paradox and big bat things start to eat everything." I offered a hand. "I'm the Doctor, a Time Lord. I'd like to help you."

Janeway eyed my hand warily. I knew she could make deals with things that she disliked, but on the other hand she was a Federation zealot and could be counted on to stand up for things like the Prime Directive beyond all reason. "How do I know I can trust you? You've proven hostile to the Federation before."

"I'm not sure why anyone thinks that," I protested. "I've done nothing to harm the Federation and, honestly, that whole thing with the Valakians made it stronger."

Janeway narrowed her eyes. "So you say."

We stared at one another for a moment. I tried not to imagine a spider on her shoulder, urging her to eat Harry. Dammit, SFDebris...

I drew in a breath. "Captain, there's been a horrible misunderstanding between me and the Federation due to my squabbles with Agent Lucsly and the DTI. I'm actually a great fan of the Federation and Starfleet. Oh, sometimes you're a bit... preachy, and the Prime Directive thing's become more dogmatic than it should be, but all things considered you're all good people and I will work to protect you. The Borg? I've faced down things like the Borg. Things worse than them, in fact. All I want to do is help you save your crew from them, and if we give them a bloody nose in the process, well, that's a little extra enjoyment for me."

Janeway remained quiet for a moment before giving a brief nod. "Alright. We'll work together on this. Better to have you on our side than fighting us trying to get away. Commander, have everyone report to the conference room."

It was so nice to be appreciated... 

* * *

Minutes later we were in the Magic Meeting Room. The girls and I remained standing as the situation was explained to us. _Voyager_ had been gathering needed supplies from a nearby system and a Borg Cube had happened upon them. The Borg had decided to assimilate them because, well, they're the Borg, and supposedly they had nothing better to do than go after _Voyager_.

"The Cube is now within two light years of our position and closing slowly," Janeway noted to her crew. "We need a way to get them off of us. Suggestions?"

"There are no suitable nebulae or spatial phenomena to hide in within fifty light years," Seven reported. "There is nowhere to hide."

"And we can't turn and fight, they out-gun us," Chakotay added.

"Can't hide, can't run, can't fight," I murmured. "Hrm. We need to change the rules."

"Change the rules?", Janeway asked.

"Yes. Change the parameters of the situation. Find a way to do one of those things." I put my hands together. "Hrm, cloaking device? No, too long to cobble one together."

"We could drop out of warp near a gas giant, skirt the atmosphere, and remodulate our deflectors to mask our warp field," Torres proposed.

I looked at her. "You love your big words, don't you? A thought, but they're getting too close for that to work, all they need to do is see the warp transition and know what you're trying."

"Maybe we can max out the warp core," Paris proposed. "Find a way to hit maximum warp long enough to outrun them."

"We took damage," Torres pointed out, shaking her head. "There's no way I can give you enough time at maximum warp to get out of sensor range of the Borg."

"So we're still at 'can't hide and can't run'." I finished a circuit around the table, seeing Janeway, Chakotay, and Tuvok were eyeing me closely.

"Why can't we fight?", Janias asked.

"Because the Borg are, in their own way, deadlier than the Reapers," I explained to her.

That won me a skeptical look from the girls, so I explained. "Imagine if the Reaper husks could adapt to the weapons you used to reduce or outright nullify them," I said. "And if with just one injection, they could turn you into another husk in just a few minutes."

Camilla paled a little.

"Wait, just what are the Reapers?", Paris asked.

"The arrogant spiritual cousins of the Borg," I remarked simply. "Very full of themselves. Well, they were anyway." I smirked. "Still... fight is our remaining option. We need to cripple the Cube's warp drive so it can't pursue you. Eventually it will give up and go to other tasks."

"An extremely difficult goal for us to attain," Tuvok pointed out.

"Yes." I continued to walk around the table. "Given how fast they adapt to your phasers..." A thought came to mind and I smiled. "But I'd like to see them catch up with phasers firing on a multi-spectrum pattern."

"What are you saying?"

"Why, Harry, it's simple! Ask yourself, how does the Borg adaptation work?" I felt the momentum in my head pick up. "It's not magic, it operates on a physical principle. Namely, by matching the frequency of your weapon, the shield's energy peaks as the beam's does, in perfect synch. The entire shot meets maximum resistance and it becomes power versus power at the point of the shot. And, frankly, the bigger ship wins." I brought my sonic up and turned the monitor on, remotely altering the display to show what I was getting at. A diagram of a phaser shot with multiple frequencies resonating within appeared. "So you change your phasers so that the energy waves propagate at multiple frequencies. It's not like random ssingle frequency alteration, which the Borg can guess at and change to cover more rapidly than you can deliver damage. They can only adapt to one of the frequencies."

"Unless they shift to multi-spectrum shields as well," Tuvok pointed out. "Or employ secondary shields at the different frequencies."

"Oh yes, but you see, every frequency added increases the complexity of the calculation to guess our pattern since there are so many frequencies they have to account for within each given pulse. Even after they adjust, their adaptation will not be perfect. Especially if the modulations are very complex."

"The proposal is sound," Seven noted.

"Theoretically, yes," Tuvok agreed, but with a strong "but" hovering in the air. "However, such a complex operation is beyond our current control systems."

I waved my hand dismissively. "Oh please, give me and Seven an hour and we can have the modifications ready."

"The issue is not just hardware but software," Tuvok countered. "Our fire control systems are not capable of calculating the complex modulations you propose."

"True." I looked to Janeway. "That's where trust comes in, Captain."

"Your meaning, Doctor?"

"I can hook the TARDIS up to your fire control systems to be used for the necessary calculations," I explained. Seeing the look on her face I quickly added, "In a way that does not give them control of the actual firing. Fire control itself would remain with _Voyager_, the TARDIS would simply help calculate the frequencies for your shots."

"And where does trust come in?"

"Because the TARDIS has only so much processing power." Camilla explained before I did. "By doing this, the Doctor is prolonging the TARDIS' self-repair. It'll take longer to get it in working order."

"Yes, what my dear Companion just said."

Janeway nodded. Again I could imagine Chuck's voice of Parody Janeway contemplating all of the ways to trick me. My luck that one of the memories I kept of my old life was knowing what those reviews were, they were a tad distracting.

Here in what passes for the real world, Captain Janeway finally nodded. "It's a good plan. It may even chase the Borg off. Can we do the same thing with our defenses?"

"The TARDIS can only handle so much," I explained. "But I believe that even in her state, I can use the TARDIS to reinforce your shields long enough to give us a few good shots.

"Good. We'll buy you all of the time you need to execute your plan, Doctor. You're all dismissed."

As the command crew filed out Janias and Cami came up to me. "And what do you want us to do?"

"Get things set up in the TARDIS for me. We're going to want to move it to Main Engineering."

"We'll get started on whatever you need Doctor," Cami assured me.

"Excellent. Now if you'll excuse me." I looked over to where Seven was waiting with an air of impatient patience. "I need to get to work."

"With her?" Janias smirked. "Oh poor, pitiful you, however can you stand to be close to someone like that?"

I gave Janias a goodbye smirk as I walked away.

* * *

It's not easy being six and a half fleet tall and trying to crawl around those damned Jeffries tubes. And then, when you add to the occasion a buxom blonde, it's a situation almost asking for an embarrassing moment or three.

Thankfully I avoided them.

I was busy in an open section, modifying the guts of one of the phaser arrays with my sonic screwdriver. Seven was further down the tube doing her own alterations according to our mutual plan. "What is your purpose, Doctor?", Seven asked, showing a quality for multi-tasking.

"My purpose?"

"Your goal." Seven didn't turn her head. "The claim that you are a time traveling madman is not consistent with your behavior, so you are clearly working toward another purpose."

"My purpose, Seven, is to travel the Multiverse, enjoy the sights, solve some mysteries that have occupied my mind, and whenever the opportunity comes, to give certain well-deserving forces some much-needed humility," I answered. "Unless it causes a time paradox, then I simply do what I can to try and help people."

"That is all?"

"Yes." I looked over to her. "What about you, hrm?"

"Me?"

"Living on a ship where people still see you as an incarnation of their nightmare, where disgust still smolders behind their eyes whenever you look into them," I said. "It has to get to you."

Seven stopped for a moment. "Sometimes," she finally admitted. "The Borg do not treat others like this."

"No, they don't. Not drones." My expression curled into a mirthless, sarcastic grin. "They just mutilate you and enslave your mind, take away anything that makes you unique, an individual. You're just a cog in a massive, consuming machine. No sadness or happiness, joy or pain, just the constant thrum of the Collective in your head, controlling every thought and action."

"Yes," Seven agreed, and I could see she was torn. There was a certain, perverse freedom in that, after all. Not having to think for yourself, not having to feel, or starve. I think a part of her missed that. But a greater part enjoyed being an individual, enjoyed the freedom of thought she now enjoyed. "And how do you feel about me, Doctor?"

"Me? I've barely gotten to know you, can't say much on the matter. You seem well enough, maybe a bit on the arrogant side. Like I'm one to talk." I laughed harshly. "We both have that, I'd say. The arrogance of all the knowledge and intelligence we've got now. Becoming more than Human."

"You were Human?", she asked.

"Was. Can't remember it. Someone locked it away in my head. I barely remember even being Human." I sighed. "Given enough time I doubt I'll even remember that."

"I see. So we have something in common."

"You mean being stripped of our Humanity by forces beyond our control and having our minds twisted to suit their purposes?" I nodded. "Yes, I suppose so. Anyway, I'm done here."

"As am I. The phasers are ready for multi-spectrum firing."

"Good. We had better get down to Main Engineering." 

* * *

I had just finished opening the link from the TARDIS to the fire control systems when Janeway's voice came over the intercom. "_The Borg Cube is entering weapons range._"

"Everything's ready, Captain," Torres answered.

I felt the sudden shift in the ship as it dropped from warp. Moments later, as it turned an twisted, the Cube dropped from warp as well. I watched a systems control panel light up as phaser energy lashed out. "_Borg shields ineffective against our fire_," Tuvok reported. "_I am aiming at known power junctions._"

Janias and Camilla remained by the TARDIS, looking very much lost with nothing to do. Even I only had monitoring duties; this time we were letting others do the heavy lifting.

"The Cube is adjusting shields, they are adapting." Seven had another station, clearly ignoring the semi-disgusted snarl on Torres' face. "I am detecting other frequency structures forming within their shield pattern."

"Not surprising. Let me see." I altered the fire pattern for the phasers and then, for more help, made a small modification to the navigational deflector. "Mister Kim, trigger the deflector on our next pass."

There was a pause before he acknowledged, undoubtedly making sure Janeway approved. He would be reluctant, and understandably so, to provoke her into tightening the clamp on his... dammit, I can't get that out of my head. Even as a Time Lord!

It was Tuvok who confirmed my success. "_The Borg shields are destabilizing. We have achieved several direct hits on the Cube._"

"They won't fall for that again," I muttered. There were various drawbacks to trying multi-spectral shields, and I'd exploited one, namely an energy burst that destabilized the field. It would be easy to counter, unfortunately.

The ship shuddered under us. "The Borg cube is locking a tractor beam."

I held up my sonic and pointed it to the TARDIS. With a press of a button its systems activated and channeled energy into _Voyager_'s shields. The shuddering lessened. "The tractor beam has dissipated."

I watched my systems as Tuvok landed several more hits, including one on the tractor emitters. But sensors showed the Borg's warp systems were still unaffected. I frowned. We needed more time, how could I...

The ship rocked again. "Our aft shields are out." Torres began barking orders to the other engineers to get them restored.

That was when I heard the transporter beams.

They appeared just six feet behind me and in front of the girls and TARDIS. Six columns overall, each coalescing into Borg drones. Torres pulled a phaser and fired, sending sparks flying from one. When another phaser struck them, it dissiapted ineffectively against a shield.

I brought the sonic up and used it to disrupt the nearest drone's implants. It fell to the floor, spasming. I turned to use it on another drone, sending it to the floor as well. A familiar sound filled engineering and a lightsaber blade sliced through two remaining drones. Janias pointed her arm up and send the third flying all the way into the main entrance to Engineering. Seven grabbed one, twisted it around, and allowed Torres to get another phaser shot that brought it down.

Before we could celebrate, six more Borg beamed in.

Right beside me.

I twisted away as they all looked my way, clearly targeting me. In the heat of the moment I realized that I was the target; they'd detected my life signs, saw me as a new species, and were curious. Undoubtedly the same was true with Janias, who found six _more_ drones beaming in beside her.

I'd given the sonic disruptor to Cami, and she fired it on a wide arc, hitting the drones coming after me and slamming them all against the nearest console. Setting 8C. Excellent choice. It destabilized them enough that I could bring my sonic up and scramble their implants more decisively.

Janias' lightsaber was a blur, slicing through Borg drones effortlessly, while security officers poured phaser fire into another arriving group. Every so often their shots would stop working and then resume as a result of the constant tug of war between Tuvok's rather brilliant random frequency-change program and the Borg adaptation.

I looked back to the system control board, seeking to resume that work and make sure my plan was working. I figured everything was under control.

And I was horribly, horribly wrong.

"_Doctor, look out!_"

Thanks to Cami's warning I barely turned in time to avoid getting grabbed by a drone that had gotten up beside me. I brought my sonic up just for the drone to bat it out of my hand. A burst of sonics fried its implants a moment later. I turned to face Cami, thanks and praise on my lips.

She screamed as my eyes came to bear. A drone was now behind her, its right arm up.

I watched in horror as twin points erupted from its hand device and buried themselves into Cami's neck. She went limp and the sonic disruptor fell from her hand.

"_Cami!_," I screamed. I scrambled for the sonic on the ground and had to roll to avoid another drone. I scrambled to my feet and watched the drone pull her away into the gaggle of drones that kept beaming into Main Engineering. I lifted my sonic and began to trigger it over and over, taking out every drone I could. From within their ranks I could see her, her lovely face contorted into pain and terror, the gray of Borg nanoprobes beginning to blotch her skin.

I used the sonic to summon the sonic disruptor toward me, grabbing it in mid-air with my left hand. I triggered Setting 12 and watched the wave of sonic energy erupt from its purple tip, slamming into the Borg in front of me with a shower of sparks from overloaded cybernetic implants.

"_**Camilla!**_"

Janias, hearing our cries, had turned and screamed her love's name. With a look of horror and anger on her face Janias leaped at the Borg in fury, her lightsaber in constant motion as if she would cut through each and every one of them. A cyclone of purple light began to scythe through the Borg ranks, aided by the repeated blasts from both of my sonic devices.

It didn't matter that the rest of _Voyager_'s crew was busy with other Borg or with their duties in the fight. With the two of us in tandem, the Borg couldn't hold us back. I knew they couldn't. We were going to blast through them and get Cami out, and then we'd get those probes out of her and get back to work on giving the Borg the bloody nose they deserved.

I went to work on protecting Janias' flanks with my sonics while Janias kept slicing her way in to get Cami out. "Jan, be careful!", I shouted. "I'll keep them off of you but you've got to give me time!"

She didn't answer. Every part of Janias' being was focused on saving Camilla.

That was why she didn't see the blow coming until it was too late.

Unfortunately, slicing a Borg drone apart at the waist didn't necessarily kill it. One such Borg drone, still active, ended up by Jan's leg.

Like a snake its arm struck out. Twin points jabbed Janias in the ankle.

"_Jan!_", I screamed.

She cried out, and for a terrible moment, she was vulnerable.

The drones around her attacked, grabbing her before she could try and continue to fight. Her lightsaber fell from her hand as two more sets of nanite injectors buried themselves into her right arm. Another set went into her left. I watched them jab her in the neck and one went through her shirt to inject her in the side of the ribs. She screamed and collapsed, rigid, into their grip as the Borg nanites flooded into her body.

I let out a "_**No!**_" that echoed throughout Main Engineering. I brought the sonics up and let loose a burst that brought down over half a dozen more drones. And I didn't stop. Screaming in pure rage and terror and hatred, I kept my sonics active and blasted my way through the Borg drones to get to my stricken Companions.

I wouldn't let them be taken. Not like this. Not _by_ this. No!

I would save them!

I _had_ to save them!

I screamed again and send down another group of Borg. I was to the ones that held Jan and Cami. I'd gotten to them! I...

I watched as green light snatched them away, along with the rest of the Borg.

For a moment I couldn't say or do anything. I just looked at the open space, beside the warp core, where they had once been. My hearts felt like they had stopped beating. My hands went numb and my sonic screwdriver and disruptor dropped to the ground.

"No," I whimpered. "No no no no no..."

"_The Borg Cube is powering warp engines,_" I heard, somewhere in the periphery of my senses. Harry Kim's voice sounded like it was coming from the end of a tunnel. I grabbed at the railing around the warp core to try and hold myself up. "_They're going to warp._"

For a moment I heard a few cheers and sounds of celebration from behind me. I almost lashed out in anger, but I couldn't find the breath. I just stared at the empty space where my Companions had been.

I'd lost them.

I'd lost Jan and Cami.

I'd lost them to the _Borg_.

"No!" I forced myself to run and saw Seven and Torres staring at me. "They've taken them! They've taken my friends! We've got to catch them!"

"It's not possible," Torres said. "We've taken damage to our drive..."

"_Then fix the bloody thing!_", I screamed. "I've got to get them back! I've got..."

I'd like to say that I coiled all of that emotion up into a spring and held it in place, to unleash on the Borg when I was ready. That I gathered my emotions, buried them, focused entirely on fixing the TARDIS or _Voyager_ or both and putting together a plan to rescue my friends and treat the Borg Collective to the full wrath of a Time Lord.

But all I could see was the terror on my Companions' faces as the Borg stole their bodies from within and took them away.

My legs came out from under me as guilt and grief piled on my shoulders until I couldn't stand anymore.

My Companions had trusted me. They'd trusted me with their lives, their hopes, their dreams, they trusted that I'd protect them as we explored the wonders of the Multiverse.

They'd trusted me and I'd failed them.

_I'd failed them._

All I could do, at that time, was scream wordlessly in a desperate, and fruitless, attempt to unload the despair and rage and guilt building up within me.

* * *

It took some time, but a part of my mind began to enforce control over the emotions roiling within me. It reminded me that they needed me. That I had to rescue the girls from the Borg. I was doing them no good screaming incoherently.

Tuvok and a security team had arrived in Engineering. "My condolences, Doctor," the dour Vulcan remarked. "The error was mine for my choice of tactics."

"You did what you could," I murmured. "I need my TARDIS moved somewhere quiet. A cargo bay or some such."

"I will arrange a team to do so immediately. May I ask what your plans are?"

I looked into Tuvok's eyes at that, feeling sarcastic, and noticing that he was already certain of my answer. "I'm getting my Companions back from them, Mister Tuvok."

"I am curious as to how you expect to accomplish this task. There are thousands of drones on a Cube and our sensors cannot isolate them even if we were in range."

"More than one way to deal with that, Mister Tuvok. But for the moment,, I've got work to do." I opened the TARDIS and stepped inside. "And I don't want any interruptions." 

* * *

I didn't notice how many hours passed after I returned to the TARDIS and began frantic repairs. As it was I didn't ask Janeway about pursuing the Cube; we hadn't damaged it enough for the _Voyager_ to ever catch up.

No, I'd do it myself. No matter what it took. I _had_ to rescue them.

The TARDIS' systems were in bad shape from the damage Astronema had caused and there was further slight damage from feedback caused by hooking it up to this cursed ship. But I wouldn't let that daunt me. I had to save Jan and Cami.

Someone less attached than I would worry about what the Borg might learn from their minds concerning the Multiverse, and how it might drive them. After the fact it would be an easy reason for me to cite for taking the risks I was about to undergo.

I didn't actually care at the time, though. All I could see was their expressions as the Borg nanites worked within them, altering their bodies and forcing their minds to succumb to the Collective Hive Mind.

And then my imagination took over, forcing me to watch as the Borg mutilated their bodies and turned them into drones. Just two more worker drones in an ant-hill, their minds crushed under the weight of the Collective and enslaved to its will.

That made me work even harder. Even faster. Even as my body insisted on needing food and rest, I could not. Not while my Companions were under their control.

I was so intent on my work that I ignored the knock on the TARDIS door for over a minute. Finally I shouted, "Go away!"

When the door opened anyway, I had a good idea of who it was.

"Hello? Are you in here Doctor?"

_Him_.

"I've made some fine vegetable stew for you! You should really eat... up... _wow_."

I looked up from the half-opened central console. Neelix was gawking at the inside, holding a tray with a covered soup bowl on it. "It's bigger on the inside."

"Very astute of you," I mumbled. "Why are you here?"

"As Chief Morale Officer and ship's cook it is my duty to..."

"Stop." I held up a hand. "Not another word. Not interested."

"You really should eat. If you don't like the stew, I know a marvelous recipe for..."

I slammed my left hand down on the controls. "I know you're trying to be nice, so I'll keep this kind," I snarled. "I am not interested, Neelix, in anything but getting this work done. If you want to bring me food, fine. Set it down and I'll eat it when I feel I need to. But do not stand there and blather to me about whatever flits about in your head. I haven't got the time!"

I looked away from him and back to my work. After a minute or so I heard him speak again. "There's an old Talaxian expression that I think you need to..."

"I don't have time for trite little folk sayings, you self-important little hedgehog! _Bugger off!_", I roared.

Neelix looked a bit offended at that. But he finally got the hint and scampered out.

I allowed myself one spoonful of stew and returned to my work. It seemed like only seconds later that I heard the TARDIS door open again. "I thought I told you to...!" I turned and found it was Seven instead. "Ah, Seven. My apologies."

"I see Mister Neelix was by already."

"Yes. Brought me that stew. Took a bite, tastes fine. Surprisingly."

"But you have not finished it."

"No. Too busy. The TARDIS is almost fixed and then I can go after the Borg to get my Companions back."

"I would advise against that in..."

"Don't you dare," I hissed, looking up and glaring at Seven. "Don't you bloody dare! I'm not going to make them suffer a moment longer. I'm going to..."

Seven moved too fast. Or maybe I was too slow from lack of sleep and food. Her hand came from around her back and shot up to my neck before I could get my arm in the way to stop her. I felt the cold sensation of a hypospray against my neck and felt it discharge, sifting its contents into me directly through my skin. Whatever she'd injected me with quickly reached my brain. Everything became hazy and I stumbled forward. "What have you...?"

I felt her catch me as I fell over. My eyes shut and everything went black. 

* * *

There was a great weight on my mind. I opened my eyes and looked out on a terrifying vista; the passages of a Borg vessel. It somehow seemed right.

_Perfection. Order. We are Borg._

The voice was cold, mechanical, and sterile. It was the terrible voice of the Borg Collective, and it echoed in my head.

I looked over and saw my reflection somehow. Borg cybernetics covered the right half of my face, complete with the red sensor light.

_No pain. No feeling. Purpose and perfection._

I turned my head the other way. Janias and Camilla faced me. They were likewise converted, completely in fact, every inch of their body being either grayed flesh or cyborg components. I tried to shift my thoughts under the weight in my mind, but I couldn't get out from under it. It was crushing me.

And then other voices came through my mind.

_Help us._

_Please Doctor! Get us out of here!_

There was a tear on Cami's remaining eye. Jan also looked like she was on the verge of crying out. When they verbally spoke, it was with the monotone of a drone. "We are Borg. We are perfection."

_Doctor, why?! Why didn't you stop them?!_

I could hear Cami's voice accuse me in my thoughts, coming down through the weight of the Collective in my head.

"I tried," I said, weakly. "I tried. Oh Cami, Jan... I'm sorry..."

_How could you let them do this to us?!_

"I'm sorry!", I shouted.

The Collective and my Companions started to speak over each other and within each other.

_You will be one with the Borg, just as they are._

_Doctor, please! Make it stop! Make it..._

The girls faltered, as if struck, and the Collective's voice came through again.

_Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated._

"No!"

They straightened up again. My companions looked at me with cold, lifeless eyes.

"You will be Borg," Janias promised.

"No..."

"Resistance is futile," Cami agreed.

_The ones you call Janias and Camilla are gone. There is only Borg._

"_No!_"

The scream echoed... and I opened my eyes again, my throat feeling dry and raw.

After a moment, I realized what had happened. Seven had gotten me with the "off-button hypospray".

Talk about embarrassing.

I had half expected to be in the brig or sickbay, but I was in a comfortable bed in the middle of what passed for a guest hotel room, so clearly guest quarters. Beside me a tray had been set out with breakfast, the warm foods kept in insulated containers to keep out the cold.

My stomach decided that it didn't care that the contents had come from Neelix's kitchen. If I didn't eat, it would go on strike.

My brain dared it to and ignored the food. I got to my feet and saw one of my suits hanging in the wardrobe. I ignored it as well and went to the door. It was locked and, upon examination, I realized I didn't have my sonic screwdriver with me. Of course. I knocked at the door. "Anyone out there?! I'm not bloody well..."

The door slid open, revealing Tuvok. "You are awake, Doctor."

"And not bloody happy either, what was that..."

Tuvok, with time-tried Vulcan patience, ignored me and hit his comm badge. "Tuvok to Sickbay. The Doctor is awake."

"_Of course I'm... oh yes, him. I will be by shortly._"

I glared at the Vulcan. "What is going on? I don't have time for games, not when my Companions..."

"You were in need of rest," Tuvok pointed out. "And you still require sustenance. Both are needed if you are going to free your Companions from the Borg."

"So you had me sedated and locked into quarters?"

"Captain Janeway and Seven agreed it was for the best. It would not be logical to allow you to engage the Borg in the state you were in. Your assimilation into the Collective would not be in our best interest or the Federation's."

"Ah, I see." I crossed my arms. "And instead of asking nicely you just decided..."

"You were in an extreme emotional state and behaving irrationality. We were left with little other choice." Tuvok motioned to the tray. "Might I suggest that while you wait, you partake of the meal provided? It will go far to convince the Doctor-" and here Tuvok evinced that mild sense of bemusement that passed for Vulcan humor "-that you are clear to, in a certain way, return to duty."

I sighed and, with much irritation and impatience, returned to my bed and worked on the food. It was a breakfast mix of cereals warm and cold, eggs that were almost certainly replicated, and some fruit I wasn't familiar with. My stomach was appeased in the process.

I had worked my way through most of the meal when Tuvok entered the quarters with, well, the Doctor beside him. The Mark I EMH to be precise, and I shall call him that to avoid confusion. "Doctor, allow me to introduce..." Ah, that Vulcan bemusement returned. "...the Doctor."

"Charmed," the EMH said drolly.

"We'll have to figure the name situation out, I imagine," I said.

"Hardly." The EMH crossed his arms. "I have well over a thousand doctorates from the individuals whose expertise contributed to my program. How many do you have?"

"Two," I answered, and truthfully. "Temporal Mechanics and Quantum Mechanics Doctorates, from the Unseen University in Ankh-Morpork. I'm the Visiting Lecturer in Quantum Wibbly and Chair of Temporal Irritation Studies. They gave me a pointy hat and everything."

"Oh really." The EMH's tone belied skepticism. "Full doctorates?'

"Technically honorary," I conceded. "Technically because I got them for sealing a six-dimensional Crack in space-time that was going to destroy their world."

"How very interesting."

I dropped the conversation there for what it was; an attempt to get my mind off Jan and Cami. It didn't work. "I need to be going now..."

"Not before we finish my examination of your current physical state," the EMH informed me. He set his medkit on a nearby counter and opened up. "First things first." He brought out a wooden... oh really? That's just... "Open wide and say 'aaaaah'."

I endured the forced examination stoically. Okay, no I didn't, I complained the entire time on their being unnecessary. It was something to do to try and distract myself from my emotions.

I could still see Janias and Camilla being taken, after I was so close to saving them. So close. But not enough. They had been freed from slavery in the Sith Empire, had experienced the wonders of the Multiverse with me, had saved my life how many times... and I'd failed them. I'd let them be taken by a force that would enslave them in more total fashion than any Sith Lord would bother. Their bodies would be mutilated, their minds crushed and tethered to a controlled hive mind, and they would be nothing more than minor pieces of a vast, all-consuming machine.

And it was my fault. My fault for not finding a home for them and not giving them the life they deserved, a life where they could be together and happy.

The lifetimers Death had shown me, and Queen Mab's warning, all dragged my hearts down into my stomach. I'd gone too far, taken too far. And it had cost them everything.

After compiling the results of his tests on me and looking at his medical tricorder scans, the EMH remarked, "A very interesting physiology you have. You've only had ten hours of sleep but I'm showing..."

"_Ten bloody hours?!_"

"...given you were awake at least thirty-four before your sedation, ten hours of sleep is light by most species' standards," the EMH pointed out. "But you appear to be more than sufficiently rested."

"Five hours is plenty for me," I grumbled. "Usually." I tried to focus on him because when I didn't... I saw my Companions' horrified faces again.

The door opened and Janeway entered with Seven. "How is he?"

"Rested and fed," the EMH answered. "And irascible, irritable, and uncooperative."

"You make me miss Chakwas."

"Whomever Doctor Chakwas was, I'm certain she doesn't miss you."

"We had a glass of Serrice Ice Brandy, actually," I countered. "She's a very erudite woman." I directed my attention to Janeway and Seven. "So, what is it you want?"

"Did you think I'd let you run off to fight the Borg in the shape you were in?", Janeway pointed out. "It would be a disaster if the Borg assimilated you and your craft."

"Well, I'm all rested and fed, so can I be on my way now?"

"No," Janeway replied. "I won't let you go off like this. You're not thinking straight. Against the Borg, that doesn't work."

"So you're going to hold me prisoner? Really?" I felt venom come into my voice. Who did she think she was, trying to...

"Actually, I intend to help you," Janeway said, interrupting my thoughts.

"Oh?" I raised an eyebrow, feeling skeptical. "Help me, eh? Going to risk your ship and crew for me? Or maybe you've got a colony of warrior cobalt tarantulas to help me out."

Janeway gave me a look of bemusement mixed with irritation. Before she could speak her comm badge went off. I recognized the dull speech patterns of Chakotay speaking from the other end. "_Bridge to Janeway._"

"Go ahead."

"_We've got the Borg cube on long range sensors. Torres thinks she can keep us at this speed for four more hours before we have to drop out of warp._"

"Keep me informed, Commander. Janeway out."

I stared at her. "You can't overtake them."

"No." Janeway folded her arms. "But I can have the ship close enough to help if you can get a team on board with your ship."

"Ah." I put a hand to my chin, feeling the stubble forming from a lack of a shave for quite a while. "We have to expect the Borg learned of what I did to your ship from Jan and..."

_Doctor!_

The voice echoed in my head suddenly and made me stop in mid-sentence.

_Doctor, I can't..._

Images flashed into my head. The interior of a Borg ship from a regeneration cell. Terror and pain filled my head.

"Janias," I whispered.

_Please Doctor! Help! I can't keep them out of my head! I can't..._

_Help us Doctor!_

"Camilla!"

I felt the power of the Collective Hive Mind come smashing down on the connection. I made a short cry and fell back onto the bed as the connection I'd felt slammed shut.

The _Voyager_ crew looked at me with interest. "A telepathic link, Doctor?", Tuvok asked me.

"Janias. She... it would be very complicated to explain how it works, but she has powers like this. We've linked telepathically quite often, and she is even closer to Cami." I rubbed at my forehead. "I felt their minds just now. I think... I think the Borg had them in a regeneration cycle, and Janias' mind was able to get free enough to try and reach me." I blinked and looked to Seven, who clearly felt something as well. "When you accosted me, Seven, did you feel something?"

"Briefly," she admitted. "I could not determine what the source was."

I felt my mind pick up. "Your old connection to the Collective. It's severed now, but you still have the... of course!"

"Doctor, what are you going on about?", asked Janeway.

"That's what happened! That's why I dreamed about... When Seven forced me to sleep and came into close contact with me, my Time Lord telepathy reached out to Janias somehow, and Seven's remaining implants provided... provided a sort of booster signal, or a translator to let my mind feel the Collective."

Tuvok raised an eyebrow. "And this means?"

"It means it's not too late," I said. "They haven't been entirely broken by the Collective hive mind yet. I'm not too late to save them! You said you wanted to help, right? Because I'm going to need it." I looked to Seven. "Especially yours. We need to talk."

"What is your plan, Doctor?" Janeway's question made it clear she wanted an answer.

"To prove your ship the means to get close and assist after we go aboard the Cube and cripple it," I answered. "Which is why Seven and I need to talk. In her cargo bay."

Seven looked at me with interest. "Very well."

"I'll be right down," i said. "I just need to run by Main Engineering first and make a few adjustments to the warp systems. It'll buy us time before the ship has to drop from warp." I grabbed the fresh suit. "And I need to go change, I suppose. I do feel a tad grimy."

My hearts raced as I shooed them out of the room. I was still horrified by what the Borg had done... but now I knew all wasn't lost. I could still save them!

And if the Borg got in my way... they would know what it meant to provoke the fury of a Time Lord.

* * *

When I arrived in Seven's cargo bay I looked around. It still had remaining Borg tech in it, including her own regeneration chamber. "No bed?", I asked quietly.

"I do not need it for rest," she replied, looking back from a control console.

"I don't know, I rather like my comfy hammock back on the TARDIS. Laying down has its advantages for rest." I finished stepping in and let the door close. "I suppose this is why you don't ask for quarters."

"I do not need them." Seven stepped away from the console. "You wished to speak."

"Yes." I stepped up to her. "You convinced Janeway to have me sedated. Why?"

"Because you were in need of rest and were refusing it," she answered. "If you had gone after the Borg in that state, you would have failed. The consequences were unacceptable."

"You didn't ask me first! You didn't even try to convince me!"

"No, I did not. I knew it would not accomplish anything."

"Really?"

"Yes." Seven never flinched. "Because in your place, I believe I would have done the same."

My posture slackened slightly. "What?"

"I understand what it is to be more than Human. To have a stronger body and mind. It can make you feel stronger than you really are. It can make you forget the need for rest." Seven stepped away from me and back to her console. "You were focused solely on retrieving your Companions. In your state, I had no other alternative."

"I see." I grit my teeth, unwilling to admit how right she was.

"Is that all you wished to speak about?"

"No." I stepped up to another station and peered at it. "You still have a supply of nanites, yes?"

"My body produces nanites to aid in self-repair, yes," Seven answered.

"Good. Because I need some."

"For?"

I took out my sonic, which had been left on the TARDIS. I ran it over a console and looked at the code inside. "Because I have a plan. I'll also need all samples of Borg control code you still have."

Seven turned toward me again. "What is this plan you have, Doctor?"

"We need to buy time for _Voyager_ to find Jan and Cami, not to mention time for them to catch up to the Cube. I think I'm going to perform a little sabotage first."

"How? Borg cubes have multiple redundancies in each system, with defenses that will escalate as each system becomes more necessary to the function of the vessel. You could never take them all out," Seven pointed out.

"Probably. But that's not the sabotage I have in mind." I pocketed my sonic. "I've got another plan. And, as I said, I'll need your help. I'll need you to help me implement it."

"And that plan is, Doctor?"

"Simple." I smiled wolfishly. And yes, I do mean a very wolfish smile. My mood was not sunny at all, so my smiles were rather vicious things. "We're going to give the Borg what they want."

That earned me a stare.

* * *

After much preparation work was completed, I stepped into the TARDIS and fired up the engine. The VWORP VWORP VWORP sounded like music to my ears, but it was bittersweet. I had grown so accustomed to Jan and Cami standing beside me as I did this that to know they were gone, that I might yet still lose them, robbed the moment of its joyous luster.

When I stepped back out, I emerged in darkness halted only by sinister green light. I was on a catwalk looking out over a long gap, a gap lined by dozens, hundreds, of Borg drones in their control chambers. Beyond was the cubed shape of what I supposed to be this Cube's computer core. It was certainly the center from which the ship was operated.

"**_Your arrival has been detected. Prepare for assimilation._**"

"I've come to offer you a bargain for the return of Janias and Camilla," I replied.

"_**Bargains are irrelevant. You will be assimilated.**_"

"I choose not to be."

"_**Choice is irrelevant. You must comply.**_"

"No, actually, I must _not_," I retorted. I could hear drones starting to approach me on the catwalk from either side. I locked the TARDIS doors so they couldn't open them if they got around me. "I've come in peace for the return of my Companions. You will return them and in exchange I'll leave the Borg Collective alone."

"_**We have adapted to your energy manipulation devices. You cannot harm us. You will become one with the Borg. You must comply.**_"

Ordinarily, I might have made a snarky comment about the Collective's lack of imaginative dialogue. But not here. Not with the anger and rage and hate growing in my hearts and in my head, red and hot and ready to be unleashed. I clamped it down though. That was a spring of power I was saving up for something else. "Last chance. Remove Janias and Camilla from your Collective and return them to me."

"_**Your biological and technological distinctiveness will be added to our own. Resistance is futile.**_"

Well, that was that then.

It was time for the Borg to learn why entire civilizations fear the name of the Doctor.

* * *

The Borg aren't very good at creativity. They're good at adapting, yes. But the problem with adapting is that you've got to take the hits first, while a creative mind might guess what hits were coming before they landed and plan for them.

This failure on their part was what I was counting on.

The drones lurched on. I brought up my sonic and triggered it, facing to my right. When nothing happened, undoubtedly from their adaptions, I changed the setting and triggered a different pulse. The drone collapsed in a shower of sparks. I used the same setting against the drone closest on my left and took it down too. The one behind that was not harmed. I switched to the sonic disruptor and triggered a Setting 4 blast to my right that send three drones flying from the catwalk. I fell back toward the TARDIS, moving the sonic disruptor over and triggering the pulse again. It slammed against the lead unit's adapted force shield and did nothing.

"_**Resistance is futile. Lower your weapons. You will be assimilated.**_"

I reached back to take the TARDIS door.

A field of green light flashed into existence over the handle.

Internal forcefield. Of course.

So I pulled out the TARDIS remote and concentrated, calling it to me so that it would phase through the shield and...

...and nothing.

_**"Your technology has been adapted to. Resistance is futile. You will be Borg.**_"

Well, bugger all of that.

I made a fight of it, of course, swinging my sonics around, shifting settings and frequencies and everything. More drones fell so that the rest could adapt.

And then, before you knew it, they were on top of me, and there was nowhere left to run. I was grabbed by the arms.

At that point, the walk shuddered underneath me. A small pinprick of red light appeared in the distance. There was a definite vibration across every surface.

I smirked. "Oh, look at that. Seems while you were so focused on me, some of my friends from _Voyager_ moved around and took out the generators powering your warp systems. I sort of slipped them in, you see, before coming to see you. And now you've had to drop out of warp. And when _Voyager_ gets here, she'll have more than enough firepower to destroy you. So, still so obstinate about giving up two people?"

"_**Once your mind is part of the Collective, we will know all modifications you have made to the vessel **_**Voyager****_. It will be assimilated._**"

And, without ceremony, two drones dug their tubules into my neck and released assimilation nanites.

Heh. All was going according to plan.

They were quick buggers too. They moved rapidly through my bloodstream, no doubt gathering whatever materials they needed from my body to begin forming into the basic implants that caused assimilation. I gasped and dropped to my knees. Within seconds the first implants were already forming on my brain. _You are now Borg. You are now one with the Collective._ The voice began drowning out my thoughts, pulling at them instead and attempting to implant directives.

I resisted. I called upon the full capability of my Time Lord brain and shouted back at the Collective. _Alright, now you're inside my head, but you can't take it over. I'm not like anything you've encountered before!_

_You will be one with the Borg. Resistence is futile._

_Oi, can't you lot come up with..._

Pain stabbed through my head, a migraine that grew in pressure as the cacophany of the Borg Collective tried to drown my thoughts, my very sense of self.

And it was here that I let it go. All of the anger and hate and guilt and pain over what they'd done to Jan and Cami, over what they represented, sprang up from within me, providing a wellspring of emotional power that I used to push back against the Collective. I called upon everything I had, everything I was, and challenged the Borg Collective with it. Not simply holding them back, but pushing into them. Not a drone, but an independent mind pressing through the connection, re-directing the power of the connection to my own desires.

And in the echos, amongst the many voices of the Collective, I heard what I'd come for.

_Doctor?! Doctor, is that you?!_

_Doctor...!_

_I'm here. I've come for you._

I felt like my head would split open at this point, but I wouldn't let up. I had to give some ground in my own mind, but it allowed me to burrow into the command systems of the Borg cube. I bypassed the most critical systems and found what I was looking for; the transporters.

_Jan! Cami!_ I called out to them through the link, needing only a moment to ensure...

_Doctor, I can't... the voice is too loud, it's..._

That was Jan. I felt her location on the Cube, a vibrant light amongst the thousands of drones attached to it, aided by the unique aura she held, by her power in the Force fueling her refusal to submit to the Collective no matter how painful it was. Sooner or later they would prevail, but I had found her first. I activated the transporter, beaming her to my location.

That left Cami.

The pressure on my head was getting louder and heavier. The Collective was fighting back, demanding I accept it, demanding I become part of its whole. I roared back defiance. _I am not like anything you have met before. I am a Time Lord! I have brought down a galaxy of creatures even more terrible than you, I have faced down cosmic forces beyond your ken and held my ground! You are not going to take _me_ and you are going to return to me my Companions!_

I had to give up a bit more of my head. I let the Borg pick at the part of my mind I felt locked away, the part representing my old Human memories, using it as a sort of flank barrier to protect other memories, more crucial memories, things about the future I couldn't let them know. I felt the Borg try to get through and around it as I plunged ever deeper into the cube's portion of the vast Collective, all in search of one mind, one light among many, just a bit brighter than the rest.

_I can't think, I can't... I am Borg. I am..._

I found her. Cami's mind was weakening. Without the gift of the Force or the power of a Time Lord brain she had only her brilliance, her will to be her own woman, and her love for Janias to hold on to the last shreds of self. The Collective had her on the edge, about to fall, about to be consumed...

_Cami! I'm here!_

_Doctor!_ I felt a glimmer of hope come from her mind, lighting her up amongst the mass of hopeless drones. _Doctor, please, I can't..._

I felt her location and triggered the transporter again, bringing her to me. They stood behind me on the catwalk now, motionless, the Collective having no commands for them at the moment.

And then, just to be sure, I used my last gasp to turn the transporters against themselves, beaming out sections of their own machinery, intentionally drawing extra power, anything to sabotage them. WIth that done I relinquished control, retreating my mind back to shore it up against the Borg efforts to overwhelm me.

_Your cube is crippled. _Voyager_ will destroy it. Will you continue this fight for just two drones when I've already done so much damage?_ I smirked. _Return my friends and I'll leave you._

The pressure on my head picked up in reply.

And then, I was somewhere else.

Or rather, the Collective had entered my mind enough that it was able to draw in my perceptions. I stood amongst bright, shining, green stars, a sea of them, small and large. And I instinctively knew that they were the entirety of the Borg Collective. Cubes, Unimatrix facilities, assimilated planets, everything.

A lone figure formed beside me.

"Hello Doctor." She smiled knowingly, in the form of a woman save for the clear Borg parts of her main body.

"The Queen of the Hive," I answered.

"My, you have a powerful mind. To resist the Collective this long?"

"Comes with being a Time Lord." I crossed my arms. "Is the Collective so desperate it needs two more drones?"

"Are you so desperate you would risk everything for just two people?", the Queen countered. "We have entered your mind, Doctor, and know that they are just two of oh so many traveling companions. With your ability to travel, why are they so important? Why do you not go for the others? So many names I see in your thoughts. Molly, Korra, Katherine, Madoka..."

"Jan and Cami suffered enough as slaves to the Sith," I declared. "I won't leave them to your slavery."

"In the Collective, they know perfection," the Queen purred. "They know the feel of the cosmic winds upon our vessels and enjoy the timeless knowledge of our mind."

"Is that any substitute for never being able to hold hands and look into each other's eyes? Or the heart-felt love shared in a laugh or a kiss? They would never have a free thought again, never know love and friendship and happiness. They would be mere drones, small cogs in your machine."

"You actually see such small things as important?" The Queen sighed audibly. "Why is it that all of you refuse to acknowledge the greatness the Collective offers? Why do you insist on clinging to small and meaningless parts of too-short lives when we offer you eternity and peace and knowledge? You, a being who can witness the death of galaxies and the birth of entire universes, why would you care about whether two small, insignificant beings are able to indulge in petty and small acts that provide only a moment's gratification? Why would you think that better than the gift of the Collective's perfection?"

I shook my head and laughed at her. "You really don't understand, do you. You never have. You're not perfect and you never were. You're a sterile creature, at your core the product of unchanging and unthinking programming that breaks everything down to mathematical precision. Whom to assimilate, whom to leave alone, what system to devour and which to ignore. What deals to honor or to break, all by your rigid calculus of benefit and cost. You talk about having knowledge and experience but your machine 'perfection' blinds you to what they actually mean. You call them small? _You_ are small. An insignificant mind with a vast body that can't enjoy the beauty of what the galaxy has to offer."

"We are the Borg. We are Perfection," the Queen insisted. "We combine the best of all species into one stronger whole."

"And all without the soul to actually _live_," I retorted.

The Queen sneered. "I had hoped to see you enter the Collective willingly. With your powerful mind intact the Collective would have the means to bring its perfection to other galaxies. But if you will not accept the gift offered, it is of no consequence. We have you, Doctor. We have you entirely. You are now Borg. You cannot resist the voice of the Collective. Your struggling is irrelevant."

The pain in my head growing. The cacophany of the Borg Collective threatened to drown out my thoughts. Jan and Cami, even though they now stood beside me, might as well have been across the ship. The Queen was bringing the entirety of the Collective to bear on me, and even my Time Lord mind couldn't shut them out forever. I was losing this battle.

I smiled regardless.

And then the Queen frowned.

"Oh, you silly little buggers," I laughed. "Can't help yourselves. Got to consume. Got to assimilate everything, right?"

The Queen stumbled backward. Below me, a single green light went out.

"You remember Seven, right? Of course you do. She's still got nanoprobes, you know. Oh, they don't assimilate anymore, but they do a lot of other tasks. And they're not too hard to reprogram." I stood up in the mindspace between us, although I remained on my knees back in the Cube. "And she still had so many fragments of the Borg command code that it wasn't hard to make a few with that. Plus some... improvements."

"What have you done?", the Queen rasped while other green lights started to wink out.

My smile grew and I'd like to think I was pulling off a good air of Ten as I continued. "You really should be more careful with what you download, because you just fell for the oldest trick in the book. I'm afraid the Collective has picked up something we like to call a Trojan."

A big green light went out.

"Oh, that was an entire homeworld, wasn't it? That's got to hurt." I smirked. "You were in such a hurry to assimilate me that you just gobbled up the nanoprobes in my body like they weren't there. Which, I suppose, they weren't. They were, after all, Borg nanoprobes, with Borg coding. No threat at all. So you swallowed them up, code and all. And now that code's changing you at the very core. That's what all this was about, you know. It's why I let you assimilate me. I knew you couldn't resist. Now the Collective's being disconnected, drone by drone, node by node."

As the green lights continued to wink out, creating splotches of dark, the Queen stumbled backward. "We will not be stopped," she insisted. "We are Borg! We adapt! We assimilate! We..."

"Oh, yes, you'll adapt. You're doing it even now. But so will my code. My Trojan's a smart bugger, you see. After all, he's mine, and I'm a Time Lord, and our race was old when our universe was still young and long before you lot ever came to be. So, well..." I laughed. "...he's going to make you work for it. Oh, he's so going to make you work for it."

The Queen watched the lights go out. The Collective howled in outrage and confusion in my head. The pressure began to slacken as it withdrew from my mind and started to disconnect itself.

But I wouldn't let it. Not yet. I pressed my mind into the Collective to keep the connection to this Cube open to it. With my Trojan having prepared the way, I reasserted some control of the Cube and used it to lower the shields and disable main power, ensuring the Borg couldn't just blow the entire Cube up, while I held control of the communications arrays that provided the constant subspace link that bound together the Borg Collective.

Through the Cube's sensors, I saw as _Voyager_ came out of warp, phasers firing. Ribbons of amber sliced into the Cube's hull, striking weak points that I was providing to Tuvok to keep the Borg off-balance and prevent them from destroying _Voyager_.

And last but definitely not least, I lowered the forcefield around the TARDIS.

"A quantum isolation field. Very clever. I bet you picked that up from the girls' memories of how the DTI once trapped the TARDIS," I said. "Of course, it wouldn't have worked if I'd been trying. I figured out how to break those a while ago. For a special project I've got in mind. But I give you points for effort."

Fully a quarter of the green lights had gone out. The Queen looked up from the projections and hissed defiance. "I can still take them," she said. "The connection to the vessel you are on will let me trigger their auto-destruct implants."

"You can try," I countered. "And if you do, I'll hold this connection open and maintain the Trojan until the entire bloody Collective is torn apart, stripped down to its component pieces. You will cease to exist. Some races will reassert their minds through the local nodes and other sections, well, they'll create hundreds, thousands, of Queens. The Collective will fight itself to exhaustion. Besides..." I shrugged. "I already handled that."

By this point, the TARDIS door had opened. Seven and the EMH stepped out, hyposprays in hand. Before the Collective mind could move Jan or Cami, the hyposprays had sent more nanoprobes into their bodies, probes designed to take over and cut the connection to the Collective in their implants. As their bodies went limp and collapsed, Seven took them and pulled them back into the TARDIS.

The Queen felt that, just as she felt every other disconnection brought by my work. She was, after all, simply the incarnation of the Collective's hive mind. She stared at me in horror as yet more green lights winked out below us. I felt her desperate attempts to retake control of the Cube I was on, to order it to destroy itself, but I blocked them.

"Well, that does that," I said. "Seven is about to cut my connection to the Collective as well. But before I go, I have something to say." I drew up to her until our eyes were locked together. I looked into her dark, cold, inhuman eyes and frowned. "This is what happens when you cross me, Queen Bee. I get angry. And when Time Lords get angry, oh, we get _nasty_. So consider this a warning. The races of the Alpha and Beta Quadrants are under my protection. The crew of the _Voyager_ is under my protection. And my Companions, well, that's what got you into this mess, isn't it? That's what's earned you this spanking. Bottom line..." I narrowed my eyes. "If you ever, _ever_ come after one of those things again, I will become _very angry_, and the next time I deal with you, _it will be more than a spanking_."

And then, to dig it in a bit more, I just had to add one last line.

"Remember little Queen. _Resistance is futile._"

And with that, I stopped trying to hold the connection. The Collective, desperate to cut off the source of the Trojan, cut the line to the Cube. My awareness focused entirely on my surroundings.

Seven offered a hand and brought me to my feet. "The connection implants in your friends' bodies have already deactivated," she informed me. "They will be safe."

The Cube shook ahead. Main power began to surge online as the Cube's base programming, even infected by the Trojan like it was, started to come back online. Even my alterations couldn't outright eliminate the command program. I only had a few hours to make the bloody thing, after all.

Which meant that it would become a local branch of the Collective and would, well, want to eat us anyway.

We got back into the TARDIS and I shifted us back to _Voyager_. I looked up and noticed the beginnings of a Borg implant on my face. "Oh dear, that's going to leave a mark," I murmured.

"Fortunately for you, I am an _actual_ doctor," the EMH pointed out smugly.

I ignored him for the moment. When we stepped back out of the TARDIS I was back to where we arrived when this mess began; the bridge of _Voyager_. The Borg Cube loomed on the screen, multiple fires streaming from its hull. "The Borg vessel's shields are still offline," Tuvok reported. "But I am detecting weapons locks."

The Borg lashed out, slicing into _Voyager_'s shields. My modifications allowed them to hold for the moment, but there was only so much power _Voyager_ could bring to bear. "Remember those torpedoes I modified, Captain?", I asked.

"Yes. Mister Kim, have Chakotay and Paris beamed back aboard with their teams?"

"Yes ma'am."

Janeway held onto her chair as the _Voyager_ shook again. "Then we're done here. Mister Tuvok, lock photon torpedoes and fire!"

On the screen, two photon torpedoes became visible, their red drive fields creating sparkling effects as they flew at the Borg ship.

When they made impact, the entire bridge lit up with a white light so intense that it overpowered the monitor safety systems nad forced everyone to shield their eyes.

When the light faded, the Cube was, well, no longer a Cube. It was about a third of a Cube... and a fourth of a Cube... and then a bit of a corner piece.

"What was that?", Torres asked. "The blast yield was..."

"Oh, it was massive. That's what happens when you mix anti-matter explosives with a little substance known as naquadriah." I shrugged. "Had to use all of it I'd scraped together to arm those torpedoes."

"You're a man of many surprises, Doctor," Janeway said to me, a slight grin on her face. "I think I liked you better before the Borg implant, though."

I reached a hand up and touched the cold gray surface that now stuck out of my right temple. "Yes. I'm not thrilled by it. Your Doctor's assistance will be most appreciated. We'll shift the TARDIS right down."

"Oh no you won't," the EMH insisted. "As soon as we get your friends into sickbay, you'll put that thing in a cargo bay and then come for your surgery."

I rolled my eyes, grinning despite myself.

Despite everything, I was grinning. I felt happy, ecstatic even.

Not because I'd given the Borg a black eye and bloody nose. No, that fed my ego, but that wasn't the source of my joy.

I'd saved them. I'd saved Jan and Cami. Everything could go back to the way it was before this wretched, unplanned excursion.

How naive I was. 

* * *

Some hours later, I sat up in sickbay with my face restored. The EMH had acted remarkably fast in removing the few implants the Borg nanites had placed in my body, aided by Seven in the process.

And then I looked at Jan and Cami. And I sighed.

Their skin was still discolored, and would be until the last of the Borg implants and nanites were removed. BUt for the moment their skin was ashen gray and their bodies still marked by implants. The EMH told me it would take him days of surgeries to remove them all. I offered to help, of course.

"Yes, and just where did you receive your doctorate again? Or your surgical training, hrm?" The EMH smirked. "Does that little blue box of yours give out the knowledge to perform complex surgical procedures? If not, I suggest you leave this to the professional."

I made a harumph sound in reply.

I spent a few hours in Engineering, helping to fix some damage and to fine-tune the engines so that _Voyager_ could get a little better mileage, so to speak, out of them. Then I went to the TARDIS and began work on a small gift for Seven, my way of saying thanks to her in particular. And then, rather tired, I took a two hour nap on my hammock on the TARDIS, feeling very pleased with myself.

When I got back to sickbay, my Companions were finally awake, seated together on one of the beds along the side. They were wearing the teal patient gowns that Starfleet kept, which at least didn't leave you with your arse hanging out, and holding on to one another for dear life. I forced myself to draw breath at seeing that they were still not whole physically. Janias was better off; the Borg had apparently decided that as a unique species they didn't want to alter her body right away, so aside from her shaved head of hair she was not missing any body parts.

Cami, however... it was my worst fear. They'd removed her right eye and her left arm was missing at the elbow. Like Jan her hair had been cutoff completely and her scalp still had markings from the brain surgeries the EMH had been required to perform to get out the worst of the implants.

My poor Companions. I'd failed them. I'd failed them and caused them such suffering.

They held onto one another like each saw the other as a life preserver. Their eyes, or eye in Cami's case, opened and focused on me. I looked into them and...

...and...

...my hearts _broke_.

I'd saved them, yes. I'd won the battle. For their sakes I had locked minds with the entirety of the Borg Collective. I had stared down the Borg Queen like she was an errant child.

And yet I had still lost them.

Their eyes, their expressions... there was no joy there. I saw sadness and fear and terror. They were hanging on to each other for dear life like nothing else mattered.

And, I suppose, nothing else did matter.

Never again could those eyes look at the Multiverse and see wonders. They'd seen so many monsters with me, and we'd fought them off, but this time... this time the monsters had gotten to them.

This time a monster had gobbled them up, and it was only by great effort and risk that I had forced the monster to puke them back out.

They'd feel indebted to me, of course. If I asked them to keep traveling they would. But there would be no joy in it like before, no wonder, no fun. They would go to each world looking over their shoulders out of terror, wondering what monster it would be this time, wondering if they would get taken again, and by something I couldn't save them from.

And I couldn't do that to them. I wouldn't.

I had to let them go.

I had to let them go and be _alone_.

With my hearts broken i slowly turned away, tears forming in my eyes. I felt a hand take my arm and looked over to see the EMH. He wasn't his usual self-imp[ortant or snide self at this time. His expression radiated compassion and understanding as he led me into his office and helped me into a seat.

And at that point, I couldn't hold it back anymore.

I began to weep.

And then I began to outright sob.

_I'd lost my Companions._

* * *

Over the following days I spent time going through the motions. Finishing repairs on the TARDIS and _Voyager_, mostly. And the gift. And... other projects, as I started to come and go from the ship as needed to check on arrangements I had been quietly making for some time. Arrangements for Janias and Camilla.

On one of those return trips I was about to bring back a cloned arm and eye for Cami, courtesy of Layom Station, and the EMH put them aside for surgical attachment. During those visits to Sickbay the girls were asleep, recovering from the repeated operations and what had been done to them. Every time I looked at them I felt the guilt rise within me. This had all started because I had taken them into danger for that quantum compiler device. If I hadn't...

Well, if I hadn't, _Voyager_ might have been destroyed or assimilated, I grant. But it was still a haunting thought for me.

Upon another return to _Voyager_ I found Seven waiting for me in her cargo bay. "Your friends came out of their last surgeries," she informed me.

"Good. Are they awake?"

"The Doctor thought it best to let them rest."

"Of course." I reached into my pocket to feel a box. "That's good."

"Doctor." Seven stepped up closer. "You defeated the Collective. But since returning your emotional state has been a negative one. Have you suffered damage that was not detected?"

"No." I sighed. "No, I'm afraid my emotions have been from realizing what this has all meant for us. For Jan and Cami, this was all some big adventure, a chance to cut loose after years of being slaves in the Sith Empire. But now... it's different. Now I've led them to a place where they were taken, almost permanently, by a force far more total than any Sith slaver." I felt my voice falter a little. "They'll say yes if I ask. But their hearts won't be in it. They'll be doing it out of obligation, and they'll be scared every time I run into something terrible. I... I can't do that to them."

"So you have made arrangements for them elsewhere?"

"Yes. Very good ones, I must say. They'll be completely happy." I said that while trying to hold back the pain in my voice. I would be happy for them too... but not for myself. Not with myself. And as much as I had been trying to prepare myself for that, I still had the temptation to ask the girls to stay with me, no matter how selfish and uncaring it was.

"I am sorry." Hearing those words made me look back at Seven. "I am sorry your friends suffered under the Collective."

"Thank you," I answered. "Oh, and... before I forget..." I brought out the box in my pocket. "A small gift for you, Seven."

Seven looked at the box for a moment before taking it. Upon opening it she saw what I'd put in; an interface device I'd rigged together. When she looked up at me to ask, I beat her to the question. "It's a device that will regulate the operation of your personal nanoprobes. You can adjust them to allow yourself to feel more Human, or crank them up to block out the Human bits when you need to. Not too far, though. Wouldn't want that to happen."

"I..." She held the device in her hands carefully. It was a sliver of metal with one surface set to fix itself to the implant still on her right temple.

"It's to let you regain something of the Humanity that got torn from you without compromising who you are now," I explained further. "You and I have that in common, after all. If I can't regain my Humanity, well, no reason to not help you regain your's."

"What will you do?", Seven asked. "After your Companions have their new home?"

"I'm... not sure. Continue traveling I suppose." I felt a tear in my eye as I thought about that. Traveling _alone_ of all things... no one to have my back, to share those experiences, those sights. "The truth of what happened to me is still out there. I'll find it, one day."

"I wish you luck in that endeavor." Seven held the probe modifier like it was delicate. "And... thank you for the gift."

"You're welcome."

* * *

We weren't on _Voyager_ for very long after that. When Jan and Cami were ready we gathered at the TARDIS to leave.

The crew of _Voyager_ turned out to see us off. I exchanged handshakes with them as they passed. "Whatever you did to the engines, Doctor, I've never seen efficiency ratings that high," Torres informed me.

"Just some engineering tricks. It should help you stay on your way," I answered.

Soon enough I was facing, well, the Morale Officer himself. "A word of advice, Neelix," I said as I accepted his hand. "I apologize for being so cross with you, and your stew was surprisingly appetizing, but you would be better served in remembering that sometimes... people don't want to talk. So don't press them on it, eh?"

"Thank you, Doctor. that is very good advice." He had that insufferable wide grin on his face. "That reminds me of an old Talaxian..."

"Don't push it, hedgehog," I warned, half-jokingly.

The EMH stepped up. "Well, Doctor, it's good to see you on your way," he said.

"Yes, I imagine that if I stayed around the confusion would be grating."

"And finding you a new name would be difficult." With his self-assured smile, he stepped away. I smiled at that.

Seven stepped up, her posture not as stiff as usual. My gift was now set onto her implant. "I see you've been tinkering with setting," I said warmly.

"Yes." And, like that, a warm smile crossed her face. "Thank you, Doctor."

"Thank you, Seven. You made rescuing Jan and Cami possible."

She nodded at that. "Take care of yourself. Even Time Lords have their limits."

"It is hard to forget some times," I conceded. "And you are right. The same goes for you. I may come back to check up once and a while."

"I'll enjoy that."

Eventually, I was facing Janeway. "Doctor, thank you for helping my ship and my crew," she said as I took her hand for the handshake. "It appears that the reports Starfleet has on you are wrong."

"Well, mistakes happen, and miscommunication," I said graciously. "We'll have to get that sorted out one day."

"I intend to advise Starfleet Command to reconsider Standing Order 30 as soon as we re-establish communications."

"Good luck with that. DTI has something of a bug up their arse about me."

"Don't you know, Doctor?" Janeway smirked. "They're that way about _everything_."

And at that, I had to laugh.

* * *

I placed the TARDIS in the Time Vortex and waited. Jan and Cami were seated on the stairs, holding on to one another and looking at each other, in the kind of silent conversation couples can easily have without words... nor simply through Force-powered telepathy. I had an inkling what they were working up to so I forced myself to stay busy on some system checks.

"Doctor?"

I turned at the sound of Cami's voice. They were looking at me. "Yes?"

"Doctor, I know we've never..." She drew in a breath and looked back to Janias, who pulled her closer to show support. "Doctor, we... want to know if you have any plans for where we might... might build a home."

And there it was. The knives twisted inside my hearts, though I did my best not to show it. This was it then. They wanted to leave.

I felt weight build in my knees. I felt the overpowering urge to drop and beg them to consider the TARDIS as home. I didn't want to to be parted, I didn't want to be alone.

But I didn't. Because I knew they'd say 'yes.' I knew they'd sacrifice their happiness for mine.

With my hand gripping a control on the TARDIS I drew in a breath. "You might say I did more than plan."

* * *

The home galaxy of Janias and Camilla was vast, with many thousands of systems settled. Some where well-known. Some... were not so well-known.

Salnorra was one such world.

It was beautiful. It had a moderate population for a Core World, and in the heart of the Republic it was peaceful in most eras. For this instance, I picked a time about nine hundred years after the time they'd come from. I filled them in on the era as we stepped out of the TARDIS. "The Sith Empire's gone, all broken up and brought into the Republic. Peace reigns. The Jedi are friendly and not very dogmatic at this point. Altogether, it's going to be a lovely seven hundred or so years until the Sith come back out of the muck like always."

The girls looked around. We were in a river valley, right along a sparkling blue river. Purple and blue-leaved flora were everywhere. Ahead of us, a magnificent two story house stood on the small hill overlooking the river.

"What is this place?", Janias asked.

"This? A private home, worth a couple million Republic credits." I turned and handed Cami a time period-specific holo device depicting legal documentation. "Specifically, a home purchased in your names."

Jan and Cami looked at each other in shock. "But, we never had..."

"Nine hundred years of interest in a secure bank does wonders for a bank account," I rmarked. "Especially when the initial deposits are drawn from Sith and Imperial accounts in Hutt banks. You wouldn't believe the amount of money they packed away. Well, maybe you would..."

"So that's our house," Cami asked.

"Yes. And your speeders. And your entertainment units. And the bank accounts of course."

"This is too much," Janias insisted. "I expected a home but this, _this_? Oh Doctor..."

"You earned it," I told them. "You earned this from me. Don't worry about it." Despite everything I smiled at them and set my hands on their shoulders. "You've been so good to me, I couldn't give you anything less. You'll never know deprivation again here, and, well... if you ever want to raise a family, I can think of fewer nice places for them."

There were tears in their eyes as they looked at each other. Janias sniffled. "It is something to think about," she said.

There were no more words to be said. They threw their arms around me, and we had a heartfelt embrace. "Doctor..." Cami's voice was breaking. "What about you? What will yoiu do...?"

"Oh, I'll get along."

"Are you sure. We can... I mean, we don't have to..."

"It's okay," I assured her. "You've earned this. You'll be happy here, and that's all I want."

Rule Number One. The Doctor Lies.

That's because, sometimes, it's a necessary lie.

* * *

It took a day or so to unload their things from the TARDIS. Photos and holos of some of our friends went along. One holo depicted everyone who'd gone along on the mission to save some of the Air Nomads, another showed the snow war in the Carpenter backyard... there were pictures of us touring Ankh-Morpork with Captain Carrot, of stops at Layom Station, or the girls goofing off with Korra and Asami in sight of the Aang statue in Republic City. They were fond memories and, with my Time Lord brain, I would never forget them. Better for Jan and Cami to have them; that way, well...

When everything had been taken out, Jan went to work getting their rooms set up while I approached Cami in the pantry with a case in my hand. "One last thing, Cami. This needs to go in your freezer unit." I handed it to her.

She looked over the case and recognized the specialized caduceus insignia of Layom Station. "What is... Doctor, this is..." Her eyes had found the text on the case and widened.

"I didn't want to presume too much, but I figured..." I took in a breath. "When you and Jan are ready, if you ever want to do this... well, the instructions are inside."

We had all teared up enough that day, but more appeared in Cami's eyes. "This is too much, Doctor. Why..."

"Because I owe it to you," I insisted. "Because I wasn't fast enough."

"Doctor, you can't blame yourself. You warned us when we first agreed to go with you that it would be dangerous."

"Not about something like the Borg," I countered. "And if it hadn't been the Borg, it would have been something else eventually. This..." I drew in a breath, forcing myself to confront the truth. "...this is another part of being the Doctor. The Doctor has Companions and, eventually... he has to let those Companions go. We've had a grand adventure, but I won't make you devote your lives to it." I patted the case. "I'll come back to see you, of course. See if there are any little ones. You know how I love being the crazy uncle."

Cami giggled through her tears. "Puppet shows?"

"Definitely puppet shows, yes. I'll even get to use my new puppet of Harry."

"'Set them all on fire!'"," Cami laughed, although it started to sound a bit like sobbing.

"Oh yes." I laughed too.

I had to laugh. I couldn't let them see what I felt inside. 

* * *

I won't bore you with the repetitions that came with our goodbyes. Everything said there had already been said. I could see in their eyes the conflict that had set in; they wanted to settle down, but they were afraid for me. So I gave them assurances and we all teared up and hugged and said our goodbyes.

Once back on the TARDIS I went to work on the controls and shifted myself away, feeling warm and happy for the moment. Jan and Cami had suffered so much in their young lives that they deserved the happiness they would find in that house. It would be a home for them and the family that, in time, I knew would come to them. And I would stop in every once and a while. Of course I would.

I made a stop to refuel the TARDIS, and as it spun slowly in space, recharging itself from the energies of a nearby temporal rift... that's when it got to me. The silence. Not the warm silence that came whenever they had retired to their room on the TARDIS, but something deeper. A still, hollow silence that seemed to drown out any other possible sound.

And that was when the full force of it hit me, a fear that had been building up since I'd looked into their eyes in the _Voyager_ sickbay and knew they were ready to leave.

For the first time since I'd been taken from a life I scarcely remembered losing, _I was alone_.

_**I was alone.**_


	9. Short 5 - Alone

**Short 15 - Alone**

The TARDIS was silent.

I sat in the library with a book in hand, a 49th Century quantum theory work in some cosmos you've probably never heard of because nobody's put it on TV yet. Quantum state and information theory was becoming both interesting and useful.

But it was getting hard to read. The silence was distracting.

I had gotten used to noise here. The noise of one or two people sloshing about in the pool, giggling and laughing and fussing like... well, like a couple meant for each other.

Janias and Camilla. It'd only been two days and I already ached to have them back.

I could just go back to them. Any time I wanted. See if they'd recovered, if they wanted to take a trip with me... _No_. I couldn't do that. I wouldn't. I...

_I didn't want to be alone_.

Frustrated I threw the book aside and left the library. I'd changed a few rooms over time. But I hadn't yet removed their rooms. I looked in on them and found... nothing. Just empty mattresses and a few furnishings they hadn't desired to keep. Their dressing room was mostly empty as well, only a few sets of clothes remaining that they had grown out of as a richer diet (and exercise, given all the running) had filled them out a little from when I'd first met them.

I found myself idly walking into the TARDIS control room. It was silent too.

It was all so silent.

I let out a cry of frustration and sank onto a set of stairs. Here, alone, all I had were my thoughts. Thoughts of who I was and what I was becoming and what I was going to do.

And worst of all, thoughts on whether I'd ever been Human in the first place.

Oh, yes, I've long relayed to you that fact. But in my mind at the time, even the very concept was becoming slippery. I had no memories of a Human Life. I remembered waking up on that Sith station with a lot of knowledge in my head, and that was it. Maybe I'd been wrong to think I was Human. Maybe I'd always been Time Lord and never known it, and it was just that I had a natural rapport with Humans to the extent that I felt myself Human. The girls had been solid in maintaining my origins, but how did I know they hadn't been mislead by my confusion?

When they had been around, the conviction in their voices had been enough to reassure me. But now... now it seemed like the entire thought of being Human originally was no longer sticking to my head. Their constant reinforcement had kept it there, keeping my memories of the fact fresh. Without them around...

I suspected it was more evidence of how my mind had been tampered with.

"I need to stop blubbering," I grumbled. Which, of course, meant I was talking to myself. "I know what to do."

Yes, indeed, I knew what to do. And so I started operating the TARDIS controls.

* * *

"No."

I blinked at the answer and how sudden it was. "No?"

"No. Sorry, Doctor, but I'm just too busy, and..." I was faced with a confused look. "What happened to Jan and Cami?"

The question was a stab into the hearts. "They... are no longer with me."

"Oh, I'm sorry." A pair of arms wrapped around me in a tight hug.

No, not just a tight hug. Something more than that.

An Abby-hug.

Abigail Sciuto gave me the tightest hug she could manage. Her pigtails of raven-black hair bounced a little as she moved her head. "I'm so sorry to hear that. What happened?"

As we were in her apartment, I let her lead me to a chair at her table. There I described to her what had happened with the Borg and how badly hurt Jan and Cami had been by the experience. This, predictably, earned me another Abby-hug. "You mean you actually let some super robot hive mind take over your brain?"

"I let them _try_."

"And then you infected them with a trojan." Abby laughed. "That is so cool."

Despite myself I smirked, although it turned bittersweet. "The damage had already been done to poor Jan and Cami, though."

"Yeah. I mean, I can't imagine... well, okay, I can imagine, but..." She looked down into her cup of Caf-POW. "So that's why you came to me?"

"You've traveled with me before, and you loved it," I pointed out. "And it would take me years to even begin to scratch the surface of everything I can show you."

"I know, and I'm flattered and all, but... my life's here, Doctor, not out there."

I nodded at that. All things told I wasn't surprised, as much as I had hoped for a different answer from her. "I understand, Abby, I just wanted to make the offer." I sighed and lowered my eyes.

I felt her hand take mine. "Doctor, I'm sure I'm not the only friend you've got," Abby assured me. "Will you do me a favor?"

"Yes?"

"Before you go? See Ducky. He'll talk to you." Abby gave me those puppy dog eyes that were irresistible to anyone who's last name wasn't Gibbs. "_Please._"

I nodded and smiled thinly. "I will indeed." 

* * *

Doctor Mallard was home when I materialized the TARDIS near the door, just out of sight of the road. I knocked and waited while, from within, the growing sound of footsteps finally ended and, a second later, the door opened. Ducky was in his housecoat, looking like he was preparing to enjoy a day in-doors in what admittedly looked to be imminently-rainy weather, tending no doubt to one hobby or another. "Ah, Doctor," he greeted me amiably. "Do come in."

I was soon enough in what looked to be a living room and a study put together. Ducky had a bottle of a favored spirit at the table as well as some coffee and tea prepared. I went for the tea and we settled in. By this point the imminence was no longer part of the weather situation; rain was pouring outside of the window. "Such a shame," Ducky lamented. "I had been hoping to be out today."

"Yes, but the weather does tend to ignore one's plans," I remarked. "At least it's not unseasonably chilly, yes?"

"Quite." Ducky took a drink and indicated a plate. "Biscuits?"

I was aware that my stomach was on the empty side, so I accepted them. They were English-style breakfast biscuits, of course, and I took some butter and applied it to them.

After we'd taken a few bites Ducky washed his food down with another drink and asked, "I suspect it has been more time for you than for us. How is your mind?"

"Locked shut," I replied. "I... to be honest, Ducky, I can't even convince myself I was once Human at this point. I feel just as much like I could be an amnesiac Time Lord who thought he was once Human."

"And those lovely young friends of yours? Surely they..." Ducky saw the pained look in my face and his expression fell. "Ah, I see. Oh dear."

"Yes."

"It's never easy when the Doctor loses his Companions," Ducky said in a low, compassionate tone. "What happened?"

I explained it to him. He visibly shuddered as I laid out what the Borg did to the girls.

The most important thing was that Ducky did not do what a well-meaning man might have done. Such a man would have tried to re-assure me with "At least you saved them". He, thankfully, knew better.

"You've never been alone before, have you?", he asked.

"In my actual memories? No. Almost from the time I woke up, I have had them with me."

"I see." He sighed deeply. "Yes, I can imagine that is much worse. In your mental state, I don't think you should be alone. I'm guessing you asked Abby to consider traveling with you?"

"I did. She said no."

"Yes, it has been a trying time for us all as of late. And Abby is so devoted to us. Jethro especially." Ducky took a sip. "Any other candidates?"

"I've considered many, but all have some form of obligation that would hold them back. Abby seemed the most likely." And indeed I had; the next name on my list was Princess Ana from Arendelle, but she had her obligations as well.

"Well, perhaps you should resume your travels. Often times the Doctor meets his Companions out of the blue like that."

"Yes." I took another bite myself. "I miss them, Ducky. I came so close to begging them to stay."

"I would imagine." His face was full of compassion. "You did the right thing by leaving them to their lives."

I nodded slightly. In my head I began to think about things and wondered if I would ever get over this. Jan and Cami had been my last links to my lost Humanity. Now they were gone. Now all I had left was this identity I had made for myself.

I was the Doctor now. And that meant I had to act like the Doctor and not mope around.

"Keep faith," Ducky said, jolting me from my thoughts. "You'll find someone down the road who wants to see everything out there."

"Yes..." My thoughts focused as I thought about what he said. I knew my expression shifted as I let Ducky's words roll in my head. "Yes indeed."

"You look like a man deep in thought."

"Just... musing, i suppose."

"Well, muse away. It does you well to get your mind off of things."

We finished the breakfast and I gently inquired as to the others. This let me get a time fix on events, apparently just after the attack on Gibbs' father by the Reynosas. "I think you'll find that things turn out alright on this," I remarked.

"Ah. And would that be because you know or just a guess?"

I smiled slyly. "Jethro Gibbs is one of those men that I would find it safe to bet for on every occasion, Ducky."

"I'll extend the complement."

When the discussion was over the rain storm had left. "Well, if that was all, you might yet get your time outdoors," I remarked. "I, for one, shall get going."

"I'm glad you came by for this talk." Ducky stood as I did. He escorted me to the door. The ground outside was wet from the rainstorm and the shining sun meant the humidity would be climbing. Ducky offered my his hand. "It was good to see you again, Doctor. Good luck to you."

I accepted the hand. "Great to see you, Ducky. Thank you for giving me an ear."

When I returned to the TARDIS I stopped at the control panel, my thoughts zeroing in on what Ducky had remarked. That I would run into someone who wanted to join me in seeing the Multiverse.

He was right. Someone _would_. And I even had a good idea as to whom.

And that meant... it was time to get to work.

So I shifted the TARDIS out, eager to see if I could fill the void I felt within me.


	10. Episode 5 - Birthday Surprise

**Episode 14 - Birthday Surprise**

Some people hate surprise parties. Can't stand them. Especially if someone sings "Jolly Good Fellow" because, let's be frank, it's saccharine and usually not at all meant.

I tended to love them, at least when I was the one throwing them.

Of course, sometimes even I could be surprised during them.

It was time for Princess Katherine's 18th Birthday. The date of adulthood, of starting to gain personal independence and all that, and that meant I had to plan the right getaway for a girl who had to have some fun due to the rather unhappy state of things.

The Clan Invasion, that is.

And yes, I thought about stopping it. But I'm just one Time Lord and, well... I was not very pleased to find out things like the fall of Rasalhague or the bombardment of Edo on Turtle Bay were Fixed Points in time. With the capital letters, even. Did what I could, but... it wasn't enough.

So I resolved to sit it out. Mostly. Just to make sure things progressed properly. And to help the occasional refugee ship escape. The Clanners are very good at computer security, but I'm better.

And, of course, to prepare myself for the day I might actually get fed up with the bloody robe-wearing band of crazy techno-fetishists who controlled this cosmos' Earth. That's all another story, of course.

No, let's focus on this story. I had to give Katherine the proper birthday. I'd already introduced her to Queen Elsa after her seventh birthday and, for that magical 10th birthday, well... little girls and talking ponies do go together rather well, yes? (There was no incident with the apple trees, I'll add. Absolutely none. No, seriously, don't ask.)

As of late, I'd been stepping up the birthdays more, going into one and heading up to the next immediately afterward. It gave me something to do now that I'd lost Janias and Camilla, courtesy of the idea I'd had at Doctor Mallard's table.

I met Katherine, as I usually did, in the courtyard of the Tharkad palace. Sometimes she was on New Avalon but with the Lyran half of the Commonwealth facing the Clan onslaught, it wasn't surprising to see her here instead. She's grown into a fine beauty at this point, long blond hair like her mother's, fine blue eyes. Blue eyes that could have easily indicated an icy heart... but here, they did not. They twinkled with curiosity instead. "Well, how was the party?", I asked her from the entrance to the TARDIS.

"Muted," she replied. "With the Clans on the advance everyone is scared. It's hard to find happiness." She looked at me with concern. "Doctor, are you sure you can't...?"

I shook my head sadly. "I've already done what I can, Katherine. But as a Time Lord I have to protect the timeline above all else. Space-time can be a... fragile thing at points. They're fixed and you can only do so much around those points without breaking them. And then I would be destroying everything."

"Does that mean the Clans will win?", she asked. "Will they conquer us?"

At that I smiled thinly. "I can only say, Katherine... that the nations of your family will survive this war. As much as I would like to tell you more..."

"...if you told me, and I acted on it, you would be changing the timeline. It could interfere with fixed points." Katherine nodded quietly. "I understand, Doctor."

I noticed the worry in her voice regardless. It was not surprising. Over the birthdays I had seen her grow up into a... very different young woman than would have existed otherwise. It was for the better.

I couldn't be sure yet if this would stay. She still had ambition, I could see it, but I couldn't see where it was directed.

"Well, the night is young yet, my dear," I said. "I have a few stops in mind for your eighteenth birthday and I think you will find them lovely. Something to get your mind off these Clan buggers"

"That would be nice, yes."

She stepped into the TARDIS, shedding her parka and showing a lovely ice blue blouse underneath. It wasn't too fashionable, of course; she wouldn't be advertising her social rank on worlds where it was meaningless, obviously.

I went for the TARDIS controls. "Well now, our first stop will be, hrm... ah yes. The Citadel. Massive space station, home to over eleven million sentient beings. From there we'll pay a visit to Thessia and then shift over to Minbar and..."

Before I could continue, my phone rang.

Katherine looked at it with curiosity. She'd never seen it happen before.

Wondering just what it could be, I took up the phone and answered, "Hello there."

"_Doctor, I don't have much time..._" There was the sound of fighting in the background, I could hear weapons fire.

"Nerys?", I asked, recognizing the voice.

"_Doctor, I need your help_."

I looked to Katherine. It looked like I'd gotten a surprise for this birthday celebration too...

* * *

Katherine watched with curiosity as I scrambled over the TARDIS controls. "Doctor, who was that?"

"A good friend of mine," I answered. "She's in trouble. I have to go help. And before you ask... the call fixes the TARDIS to that point for a time, if I don't go now the event will pass by and become part of my timestream. I have no choice."

"I understand," Katherine replied. "What do you need me to do?"

"Nothing," I replied. "I have suspicions about what is happening and it's going to be very dangerous. I'm not making this birthday your last, Katherine."

She was silent as I shifted the TARDIS. But I saw a gleam in her blue eyes and worried that she was going to get herself involved anyway.

I'd locked in on the temporal beacon's signal to ensure we materialized as close to the location as possible. I opened the door to find a dead Jem'Hadar at my feet. The corridors of DS9 were before me.

Oh. Oh dear. _This_ event.

I'd come in with stealth mode and was justified for that choice as another troop of Jem'Hadar ran by, bringing their weapons to bear. I pulled out my sonics and stepped outside of the TARDIS, making myself visible. "Hello gents, do you know the way to the Promenade?", I asked in a friendly tone.

The engineered super-soldiers turned at the sound of my voice. I activated the sonic disruptor on wide arc and sent them flying, weapons included. With my sonic screwdriver held up to scan their weapons I approached carefully. They were already getting to their feet.

So I gave them another quick blast.

from deeper down the corridor I could hear Nerys' voice. She was fussing with someone. A little closer and I was able to make out that voice as well. Rom. So my suspicions were confirmed. This was the retaking of DS9.

I almost expected to find more Jem'Hadar, but I didn't. My sonic confirmed my readings of their guns so I could short them out if it came to it... which just meant I had to avoid getting impaled by their pikes.

As it turned out, I didn't get to Nerys first. The shooting had stopped when I rounded the corner and found her with Odo and some of his Bajoran deputies. "Well, it looks like you got the rest," I remarked.

Nerys allowed only a faint hint of a smile at seeing me. "We're too late," she told me coldly. "The mines went down."

"Yes, that is rather a bother." I knelt down beside Rom and brought out the sonic. "Weapon systems are down, at least, so they can't shoot at anyone. Might want to get those back up if we take control of the station back."

"Assaulting Ops will be a bloody business, Doctor," Odo pointed out. "Dukat's secured it well."

"I'm sure he has, which is why we're not doing that yet." I looked to Nerys and smirked. "Remember our little visit back during the Occupation?"

Nerys understood immediately. "Reactor control. You're thinking of routing all the controls there?"

"I am." And I was. Of course, I had no intention of actually using them for anything. Sisko would sort the incoming Dominion fleet out... wait, I did mention that, right? That this was all a desperate attempt to keep a couple thousand Dominion ships from flooding into the Alpha Quadrant. Sisko would convince the Prophets to deal with the buggers. "And to be on the safe side, trying to find some method of getting the weapons back won't hurt."

"The Jem"Hadar and Cardassians are everywhere, I'll be too busy dealing with their detachments to help if they find you," Odo warned.

"Don't worry about that Constable. That's what the TARDIS is for." 

* * *

We returned to the TARDIS. Katherine was waiting by the door. "Doctor?"

"Who's she?", Nerys asked, looking at Katherine.

"Katherine. Nerys." I was too busy to give more than a hand gesture and a name.

I shifted the TARDIS to Reactor Control. The Cardassian engineering staff was undermanned given the prior sabotage. My sonic took care of their weapons and Kira brought them down with stun shots. I went up and unlocked the controls for our use. "Okay, changing command systems to connect down here." I raced my fingers over the nearest control. "It's going to take a while."

"I"m patching into communications." Odo took antoher station. "My deputies will need to report in with me."

"Fair enough. Switching into weapons control."

Nerys had turned a station into a sensor log. "The _Defiant_ went into the wormhole," she said. I could sense tension in her voice tinged with a little hope. "There's no way they can stop that whole fleet. They'll be..."

"They'll need help," I pointed out. "Of course, think of where they've gone."

Nerys' eyes widened. "You think..."

"There's a reason they call him the Emissary," I pointed out.

And, for the first time since I'd arrived, Nerys smiled fully. "You already know, don't you. You know he's going to beat them with the help of the Prophets."

"Well, 'beat them' may not apply entirely, but I do believe he'll be the only one returning." I set a hand on a control panel and looked back to Katherine. "Rather interesting birthday party for you, eh Katherine?"

Nerys looked at me with curiosity.

"It's a thing, I've been giving Katherine birthday rides. Your call came when we were off for her eighteenth."

"All things considered, this may be the best one yet," Katherine answered, watching us intently. I could see the sparkle of youthful exuberance in her eye. This was, for Katherine, more than just a TARDIS ride; it was an _adventure_.

"We may have a problem," Odo reported. "I've got several deputies pinned down in the habitat ring. It looks like the Jem'Hadar and Cardassian troops are going after some of our residents."

"Reprisals," I grumbled. "Let's see if I can talk them down."

Nerys smirked at me. "You mean like the last time you tried it here?"

"I'll be more diplomatic," I promised. "Patching us through now." I looked up at a monitor and saw it blip to Ops. There was Dukat, of course, and Damar, Weyoun and the "female" Founder (did shapeshifting beings made of sentient gelatin even have gender?, I wondered) near him. "My, how history does love to repeat itself," I said, enjoying the confused looks on their faces and the slowly building irritation on Dukat's. "Hello again, Gul. It's been a while. Granted, not quite so much for me, being a time traveler and all that. Jolly good show with using your shuttle transporters to rearm Gul Ukrell, I must say. Excellent ingenuity in the cause of murder and oppression. Something of a specialty there?"

"_Ah. Have you come to witness our moment of triumph, Doctor?_" Dukat's face now oozed egomania and smug triumph. "_Your services as Bajor's defender will no longer be required when our fleet comes through._"

"What fleet?", I asked in false confusion. "Oh, you mean that fleet that just tried to go through the wormhole? Yes, bit of overkill wouldn't you say? Sending so many ships. Awful bloody lot of ships to protect Cardassia."

"_I see no need for pretense, Doctor. We intend to finish our conquest of the Alpha Quadrant with that fleet. If I were you, I'd find a safer time period to travel to. Maybe after our victory is secure and peace is restored, hrm?_"

"_So this is the mysterious Doctor who nearly killed one of my people_," the female Founder chimed in. Probably because her ego couldn't permit her to stay silent in my exchange with Dukat.

I winced a little. A false wince anyway. "Oh, 'killed' is such a strong word, I had no idea that my sonic screwdriver would destabilize your species' morphogenic field that badly. I did leave him safely on your new Homeworld, didn't I? Didn't leave an apology note for ruining your attempt to replace the head of Starfleet but, well, I don't go for insincerity in my apologies. Unless I'm being diplomatic."

"_Such blasphemy_," Weyoun gasped.

"_Like all enemies of the Great Link, you will be dealt with harshly, Doctor_," the Founder warned. Apparently, aside from her ego, she also believed in blunt threats.

"Tell me if I'm wrong, Founder, but you were going to order Nerys killed, weren't you?", I answered. "Now, see, _that_ would have been a mistake. I'm something of a crazy adopted uncle for her. And hurting her, or anyone close to me... that's not a very safe place to stand. Just ask the Borg if you ever see them."

Nerys widened her eyes. Undoubtedly she now realized why Jan and Cami weren't with me anymore.

"But I didn't call to exchange threats, Founder. I called to simply remind the Gul of what I told him before. Bajor is defended. Bajor's people are defended. And I know you have troops about to attack the Bajoran civilians on the station."

"_Bajor's treachery against the Dominion is beyond doubt now_," the Founder answered. "_And it will be punished._"

"Ah, reprisal killings of civilians, the staple of totalitarians everywhere," I flippantly remarked. "Just no imagination with you types, is there? Or memory. Since, as I recall, the Bajorans weren't the people who were ready to bomb your Great Link to atoms." I looked at Dukat to test his reaction. I wondered how much he had though of that little factoid, of the attempt by the Obsidian Order and Tal Shi'ar to destroy the Great Link.

"_If you care for the Bajorans so much, Doctor, I suggest you surrender,_", the Foundered replied. "_I may show mercy._"

"Better idea." I smirked. "Why don't you look into why you're still talking to me and not the armada you were waiting for?"

Oh, that shut them up. Dukat was the first to recover. "_I suspect they're busy subduing the _Defiant_, they'll be along..._"

"_Ship coming through the wormhole. It's the _Defiant_._"

"_Our fleet should be right behind them..._" Dukat noted.

Instead, there was just silence.

I smirked. "You may want to check on those stations in the Gamma Quadrant. I'd love to chat more, but I have some people to rescue." I killed the connection.

"They did it," Nerys said quietly. "They stopped the Dominion." It wasn't a question.

I nodded. "And now we have to, if we're going to stop a massacre."

* * *

Nerys remained behind to watch Reactor Control while we materialized the TARDIS in the habitat ring. The Bajoran population of the station had huddled in this quarter and were being guarded by Odo's deputies. We could hear weapons exchanges down the corridors. One deputy, a burly-looking young Bajoran woman with dark red hair, brought up her phaser rifle and nodded to the Constable. "Sir, they're hitting us hard on the crosswalk from the Promenade. Pala and Lorya are badly hurt. We can't hold them."

"Have the squads fall back, we need to reduce our perimeter." Odo looked to me after the deputy went off to make sure the orders were followed. "Doctor, any suggestions?"

"I can jam their weapons with my sonics, but that won't stop the Jem'Hadar. They'll just rush your men with their blades." I looked around at the busy corridors, lined with Bajorans seeking refuge. They were all looking toward me by this point and I thought I saw some flickers of recognition in some of their faces. "If I can get to a computer system I can try to establish forcefields to keep them out."

"You'll need top security clearance for that, Doctor."

I smirked at him and help up my sonic. "I've hacked the Borg Collective and a billion year-old AI control system. DS9's computers aren't that great a mystery, my dear Constable."

That won me the notorious Odo "harumph" and crossed arms. "Remind me to add some new security blocks when we're done."

"Yes, it'll make for some fun sport the next time, eh?"

With Katherine following me, I found a nearby set of moderate-quality guest quarters, the kind with a separate bedroom. Normally they were empty but for now they served as emergency shelter for some of the civilians who normally didn't live in this part of the station. Bajorans weren't the only ones present; I recognized a Lissepian, a Mizarian, and a being that after consideration I realized had to be of Morn's species but with hair. The Jem'Hadar weren't being very picky, it seemed.

I went to a control console as screaming and crying erupted from the bedroom. The racket was distracting, the kind it's hard to block out. I winced and looked back to Katherine.

I didn't need to ask. She was already walking to the bedroom door. When it slid open she looked to me. "It's a hungry child, I think. His mother is unconscious on the bed and being tended to."

"Shot no doubt. There should be a replicator that can replicate milk for Bajoran babies, just ask and it'll provide it. I'm going to need to concentrate."

Katherine nodded and entered the room. I got to work on the panel. I didn't need my sonic much, as it turned out; while it was capable of quickly modifying code and the like, I was learning how to deal with Cardassian software quite easily. The Cardassians had been forced to rebuild _Deep Space Nine_'s central systems from scratch given the sabotage Sisko's crew had pulled when leaving. And from the look of things, they'd rushed some of the coding work. That made my job easier.

I felt a pull at my pants leg and looked over and down. A small Bajoran boy was looking at me. "You're the Doctor." His words weren't a question.

"Yes," I replied.

"My dad says you're a Prophet," he said quietly.

"No, I'm not." I admit I was keeping most of my attention on the computer.

"Dad says he saw your magic box in Rakatha," the boy explained. "He said it was bigger on the inside, and only the Prophets can make it."

"Not just the Prophets, as it turns out," I answered. "Would make my life rather easier if it were true."

"Are you here to save us?"

The question was simple and direct, but I could sense a tremor of fear in the boy's voice. How long had the Bajorans on this station been afraid of something like this? Of the day the Cardassians and Jem'Hadar turned on them? I briefly looked back to him and said, "Yes."

Satisfied, the boy went off, probably to inform his father of my answer.

I turned my attention back to my work. "Oh come on!", I protested as the display showed a failure message. The Cardassians had apparently allowed parts of the station to go to rot. I couldn't bring the forcefields online until a power conduit had been fixed. I looked into the bedroom. Katherine was watching the children as one of Bashir's Bajoran nurses tended to the wounded woman in the bed. "Katherine! Stay here with the kids. I've got to get some repairs done."

"Doctor?" She looked up. "Shouldn't you have someone helping you?"

"I'll be fine."

I really should have known better, shouldn't I? Those were pretty famous last words. 

* * *

The sounds of battle were in the distance. Even with the Federation-Klingon fleet on the way, the Founder was just bloodthirsty enough to want a reprisal. Especially, I mused, when you consider my sudden arrival. I had undoubtedly been the final nudge that convinced her to devote her Jem'Hadar to reprisals instead of just withdrawing.

Yay for me.

So I made my way to the conduit I had to repair and applied my sonic to it. The repair wasn't as easy as I'd hoped it would be. It was some seriously shoddy work; Chief O'Brien would have been grossly offended.

"Surprised these things haven't fallen apart further," I muttered. The conduit was fixed, but another one in the section couldn't handle the power throughput. I'd have to go over and bring its secondary capacitors online. I rushed over to do just that, going two halls down.

I knelt down along the wall, pulled the wall panel out, and began to run the sonic over the conduit internals. "There we go. All the power we'll need," I muttered. "Just have to..."

I heard the boot hitting the ground just in time. I pulled back and spun away as a Jem'Hadar soldier shimmered into view, his polearm blade coming down where my back had been. He was fast, too. He kept his blade from going into the conduit and giving him a shocking experience. With a snarl of frustration on the Jem'Hadar's face, he brought the blade around toward me. I kicked out; given all my running and my height, my legs could be quite formidable.

Unfortunately, I still wasn't much of a physical, melee fighting type. My kick missed the Jem'Hadar's knee and smacked him in the upper shin. It unbalanced him a little, allowing me to evade the next downward swipe. I scrambled to my foot.

The Jem'Hadar's arm reached out. He got a handful of my jacket in his hand and used it as leverage, pulling me back and slamming me against the wall. I tried to strike him in the neck. My blow wasn't strong enough to damage his windpipe through the armored flesh over his throat. Seeing the blade start to come down at my chest, I brought my hands up. One grabbed the Jem'Hadar's wrist, the other the weapon. If I'd had the strength, I could have gotten leverage on the weapon and twisted myself out of my precarious position, perhaps even forced the Jem'Hadar to drop it.

Unfortunately, I was dealing with a genetically-engineered supersoldier. I felt like I was trying to hold back a machine and realized my plan had gone horribly wrong.

There was nothing I was going to be able to do before the Jem'Hadar's blade found my left heart.

Some birthday party this was turning out to be.

* * *

Now you would expect me to get rescued by Katherine, right? Plucky young girl proves she can watch my back, earns her place as my Companion, that kind of thing?

Honestly, it's what I expected.

Instead the Jem'Hadar went limp as a phaser blast struck him in the back. I pushed him away and let him fall to the ground. I diverted my attention to my rescuer.

"Uh, are you okay?"

Rom.

I actually chuckled a little. "Oh, right as rain."

"Odo said you were trying to get the forcefields up," Rom said. "I came to help."

"I imagine so." I gestured toward the open panel. "I think I mostly have it."

Rom knelt down and inspected it. "Uh, did you check the plasma exchanger?"

"Yes," I said. Although when thinking about it, I don't think I gave it more than a cursory glance.

Rom came to the rescue again, pointing out where the connections were blackened. "The Cardassians keep forgetting maintenance around here. They forget all the changes that Chief O'Brien made to the station. Plasma exchangers need routine replacement."

"Good eye, Rom," I said, feeling my cheeks burn. Had that Jem'Hadar not come, I'd have blown the hall up.

It occurred to me at that point that my Time Lord body was more robust than a Human one. I should have been holding my own against that Jem'Hadar, at least. That fact that I didn't, and that I forgot such a simple step...

Well, that's what happens when you forget to take care of yourself. And I hadn't been doing either very well at that since Jan and Cami had left. It was a wonder I remembered to shower and change clothes.

Rom, as it turned out, was carrying a spare in his kit, and replaced the exchanger with enviable efficiency. Say what you will about his dental hygiene or social skills, but the man's handy with technology. Got quite a good heart too.

"Everything's ready. Can you, I mean, only senior staff can turn the fields on."

"Or someone with a sonic screwdriver." I brought it up and used it on a nearby control panel that I'd already rigged to accept the needed commands. The display showed forcefields popping up all along the habitat ring. "Good show, Rom. Excellent work."

"Uhh, thank you," he answered.

We took a corridor closer to the crossover to the docking ring. "Go on ahead, Rom, get back to Leeta," I said. "I'll be alright."

"If you say so, Doctor. But if something happens to you, Major Kira's not going to be happy with me."

I allowed myself a smile at that. "It'll be fine."

Rom gave a nod and ran off. Well, it was more of a scamper, but a very good scamper. Definitely closer to a run than a scamper.

I watched him disappear around a corner on the halls leading back to the habitat areas when I heard the shot. A phaser beam, the whine being distinctly Cardassian.

I heard a familiar voice scream, "_Nooooo!_"

...actually, I heard _two_ familiar voices scream that.

I quickened my pace and came out into a corridor. In front of me was Gul Dukat, cradling his daughter Ziyal. Beyond them was Dukat's second, Damar, in a struggle with...

Katherine had apparently been taught some self-defense. She attempted an arm-lock, but she was an eighteen year old girl up against a Cardassian veteran and former guerrilla fighter used to the occasional wrestling with Klingons. Damar pulled out of it and belted Katherine across the face, sending her down.

For just a moment, I was stunned at the sight. Considering what she might be, could still be...seeing Katherine Steiner-Davion fighting not for her life but for another being's, one she didn't even _know_... that was something I'd never quite let myself believe to be possible.

Of course, it would be for nothing if Damar shot her. I brought the sonic up and sent a feedback pulse into his phaser. It exploded in sparks in his hand as he tried to aim it at Katherine. Damar yelped and dropped the weapon, cradling his burnt hand. He looked up to me.

"There's an old saying. _'The burnt hand teaches best.'_ Keep that in mind. Now bugger off."

Damar, startled and frightened, did just that.

I went to Katherine, who already had a bruise marring her cheek and lip from where Damar struck her. A trickle of blood from her nose trickled down the left side of her mouth. I offered a hand. "Some birthday," I muttered.

"Don't worry about me," she said as I lifted her back to her feet. "What about her?"

I turned and faced Ziyal and Dukat. To see this evil man, this killer of innocents, clutching his daughter like she was the most precious thing in the world... it could be a sobering reminder that even bad men have what is arrogantly called "humanity" in them. I held the sonic up and examined Ziyal with it. Damar's shot had been slightly off-target, undoubtedly due to Katherine, but it had still done its job. She had massive internal damage and shock was setting in. She would die in minutes if untreated.

"Save her, please," Dukat asked me. "She's half-Bajoran, isn't that enough?"

I looked at him. "Is that what you think I'm about, Dukat? That I chose to protect Bajorans against Cardassians because I don't care for your species?" I shook my head. "That's not what I am." I reached into my jacket pocket and brought out a medigel pack. Layom Station's regenerative remedies were all well and good for patients who were stable, but they wouldn't be enough for Ziyal. Fresh medigel from the best manufacturers on the Citadel, on the other hand? Perfect.

As I began to prepare the pack for application, I felt a bit of hesitation. This... this was changing things. Tora Ziyal was _supposed_ to die here. Dukat was supposed to be broken by her death and go mad. If I saved Ziyal...

...I would be saving a bright, brave, and altogether decent young woman, instead of leaving her to die based on what I _thought_ was supposed to be history.

To this day I sometimes wonder about things like this. I know how things "should" turn out... but not because I experience them myself as history. Rather, because I watched them on a bloody TV show. I read them in a bloody book. How could I let _that_ decide my actions?

The truth was, sometimes it did because I was too worried about what happens if I change things and the consequences change too much. I said as much to Harry Dresden after we saved Ivy from the Denarians; if I pull at the threads in an attempt to fix things, I could unravel the entire thing, and I may not be able to put it back together.

On the other hand, how could I let someone like Ziyal die because I didn't know what her survival would cause?

That is the dilemma of the Doctor. It is mine even more so, as I have not one timeline to consider but so, so many. I could never fix them all if I went about yanking threads and unraveling everything.

And sometimes, the decision I make depends not on forethought and planning and long agonizing consideration, but simply on what's going on at the time of the decision, what I'm feeling... and what I'm seeing.

In this case, I was looking up into the bruised face of an eighteen year old girl I had been molding for the last fifteen years of her life, trying to make her a better person than she would have become. A girl who had never seen me forced to make hard choices, who only saw me as the man in the magic box who could do anything. Who could save anyone. I wasn't just her crazy adopted uncle like I was with Nerys or the Carpenter children. I was her _hero_.

"What can you do for her, Doctor?", Katherine asked me. "Can't you save her?"

And at that moment, I knew I had to try.

And I tried.

Oh, I tried.

But sometimes... even trying is not enough.

Some days, despite everything you do, you just can't do enough.

As I've learned to my regret, the Doctor doesn't save everyone.

...

Of course, this wasn't just any day. This was a girl's eighteenth birthday.

And birthdays can have a magic of their own. 

* * *

A few hours later Quark's was packed with Bajorans, Starfleet personnel, and Klingons. Synthehol and bloodwine were flowing, there was cheering and laughter, and Quark happily sat at his bar counting his profits.

What was I doing, you ask?

What else does the Doctor do when _everybody lives_?

"Doctor..." Odo's growl was at least not as growly as usual, laced instead with the sarcasm of his humor. "I believe I warned you that I'd charge you if you ever danced on the Promenade again."

"I'm not dancing on the Promenade," I laughed, interrupting my rhythm in what was a very bad side-step dance.

Odo gave his more joyful "harumph". "It's close enough."

Katherine was too busy laughing herself to tears. Beside her, Ziyal was settled into a hoverchair from the infirmary. Bashir had permitted her to attend on the condition that she didn't do anything strenuous. Nerys was there to make sure of it, fussing over Ziyal like a mother hen and shooting very sharp glares at Garak who, for the first time since I'd met him, looked almost... _shy_.

I switched to what I thought was a very passable version of the twist. Hooting came from some of the tables. "That's atrocious!," I heard Dax call out. "You're not allowed anywhere near our wedding if you're going to dance like that!"

Worf gave his fiance a look that seemed to say "There'll be dancing at our wedding?"

Nerys let out a laugh at Dax's remark. Katherine recovered from laughing enough to stand up and walk up to me. "No no, I don't know where you learned to dance, Doctor, but I can't let you do that anymore." She took my hands, shifted where my arms were, and began giving me instructions on where to put my feet. It was courtly dancing from the Inner Sphere, the kind you find in noble ballrooms, and not really something for the atmosphere in Quark's.

We nevertheless had quite the audience.

* * *

Katherine was well and tuckered out when our day came to an end. I showed her the hammock on the TARDIS to rest until I got her home and headed back out onto the Promenade to say goodbye.

Admiral Ross was standing beside Sisko. He extended me a PADD. "Doctor, have you ever heard of Starfleet Standing Order 30?", Ross asked.

I nodded. "Yes, I have. It's why I try to give you lot some distance these days."

"Well, you don't have to worry about it now," Sisko remarked.

"Starfleet Command has reviewed our reports on the retaking of _Deep Space Nine_," Ross announced. "In light of your help in securing the station and its residents, Starfleet has suspended SR30 pending a full review. A review that will have to wait until the war is over."

"I can't imagine DTI is going to be happy."

"Oh, they're livid," Ross confirmed. "And they still have standing orders for your arrest. But Starfleet won't act against you on our own initiative."

"I see." I handed the PADD back to them. "Thank you, gentlemen."

"Feel free to give the Federation any help you can," Ross said. "We need it."

I nodded. The war wasn't over, after all, and the Dominion would be back with a vengeance soon enough. "I will do what I can," I promised.

It was, in retrospect, a promise that was very questionable to give.

"What about Dukat?", I asked.

"He'll be held for trial," Sisko said. "He has crimes to answer for, in the Federation and on Bajor."

"So long as he does," I answered. I wondered just how this would change things. Dukat wouldn't be there to give Damar one of the speechs that helped prompt him to rebel against the Dominion. Maybe it wouldn't be necessary... but what if it was?

Something I'd have to deal with eventually, I imagined.

When they left, Nerys stepped up into the TARDIS as I entered it. "So, a birthday party?", she asked.

"Not the one I imagined I'd give her," I admitted.

"We talked about how we met you." Nerys crossed her arms. There was a look of some mischief and faked irritation on her face. "So, I wasn't good enough for birthday parties?"

I winced. "Nerys..." I drew in a breath. "I..."

"Don't worry about it," she said, putting her hands on my arms. "I know."

I could see that she did. Had I tried the same with her... it wouldn't have lasted. I would have changed her future to spare her the suffering of her childhood in the Occupation.

"I've never... talked to you about this. Not really. Back in the Occupation I know I was bitter about you not letting us come with you. And I wasn't understanding over how you wanted to end the Occupation. You tried to tell me but I wasn't ready... But that's changed. Coming to _Deep Space Nine_, it's made me appreciate what you said to me back then. And..." I saw tears in her eyes. "If I still wish you had taken me away from the Occupation, it's because there are things I did that... it's... you once told me there was a better way, and I threw it back in your face. I told you I'd never regret killing Cardassians. But I was wrong. I do regret the things I did during the Occupation."

There were tears in her eyes at this point. I felt a couple of my own. "I understand," I told her. "I'm sorry."

"Yeah..."

We remained silent for several seconds. Nerys put a hand to my chin. "You've got stubble," she pointed out. "Trying to grow a beard?"

I reached down and pressed my hand to the other side of my face. I had been forgetting to shave lately. "Not really."

"I talked to Rom. He told me about the conduit and your fight with the Jem'Hadar." She shook her head. "You need to take care of yourself too."

I nodded. "I haven't been my best since..."

"What happened to Janias and Camilla? Are they...?"

"They were taken by the Borg," I explained. "I got them back out but... it hurt them deeply. They're not up to traveling with me anymore. I gave them a good home. They'll be happy."

"I'm sorry. You must be so lonely now."

"I suppose I am," I admitted. "You want to come along? Take a ride in my magic box?"

Nerys laughed at that. "I'm not that little girl anymore," she said. "Besides, I think you've already found a good partner." She looked over to the hammock.

My eyes followed her's. Katherine was laying on her side, sound asleep.

"That would be complicated," I remarked.

"Oh?"

"She's... well, she's a princess. Second in line to the throne, that kind of thing."

I didn't mention my other worry. That her ambition remained. That even if she was bold and selfless and kind, ambition could still warp all of that. All it took was her deciding she should rule her family's union.

"If you say so. But she's smart, brave, and she loves traveling with you. Sounds to me like a perfect fit."

"That she does," I admitted. "So, getting late. Got a busy day tomorrow, I imagine?"

"Oh, busy. We have to get everything switched back to Federation systems. I think Chief O'Brien wants to throw Dukat out the airlock just over the state of some of the station's modifications. Five years of work and Dukat's engineers messed everything up."

"Ah. Best of luck to him, then." I escorted Nerys to the TARDIS door. "Take care of yourself, Nerys."

"You're the one who needs it more," she pointed out. "If you need to talk... we're always here."

"I'll keep that in mind," I promised her. I watched her head toward the exit to the Promenade before closing the TARDIS. It was time to take Katherine home. 

* * *

I let Katherine have her nap, during which I made sure to shave and change clothes and pick up in the TARDIS. I materialized us in her receiving room in the palace on Tharkad. "How is the bruise?"

"Doctor Bashir healed it," she answered me, walking over to a chair.

"Good. Not the birthday present I imagined."

At that Katherine laughed. "Dancing made up for it. Give me some time and you could actually pass in a social ball."

"Not my thing," I answered with a smirk. "You came after me, I'm guessing?"

"Yes. I knew you didn't have anyone to watch your back." Katherine put her hands together. "And then I heard Gul Dukat talking to his daughter and went to see what was going on. When that Cardassian pulled a gun I grabbed it."

"You saved Ziyal's life," I told her. "You did a good thing."

"Thank you." Her blue eyes seemed to sprinkle. "Doctor, can I ask something?"

"Go ahead."

"I've enjoyed the birthdays, but I'm all grown up now. You don't need to worry about it next year. We're going to be at war with the Clans anyway, it's not right that I get to go off on adventures while my brother and so many others are fighting."

"An admirable sentiment," I said. "I'm guessing you have thoughts on what you need to do."

"Yes. I need to keep our peoples' spirits up." Katherine put her hands together and leaned forward. "With the way the war has been going, they need it."

"Yes, they do."

And here was where I decided to test her. I had to know. I had to know where that ambition was directed.

"What do you want, Katherine?", I asked. And no, I didn't try to impersonate Mister Morden with that. "You're second in line to your parents' throne. If anything happens to your parents or Victor..."

"I'd be Archon-Princess," she finished. "Is... is something going to happen?"

There was an eager tone in her voice. I kept myself from breathing hard. I was afraid of what it could mean if she... if it had all been for naught. If despite all of my changes...

"Not necessarily. I'm just asking," I replied.

She nodded and took a breath. "Doctor... I... I can't talk about this, not right now. I have education to work through and public appearances and the war, and Victor's out there risking his life. I don't want to talk about this until I know he'll be fine. I don't want to even think about it."

I nodded quietly. "I understand."

"Come back when the war's over," she said. "Then I'll give you a reply. If I'm still alive."

"Don't worry about that," I assured her.

* * *

As it turns out... I couldn't wait.

Okay, I had enough control to not _immediately_ jump to just after Tukkayid, when the Truce of Tukkayid came into force. In fact, after getting a good rest myself, my next destination wasn't even to see her.

I stepped out of the TARDIS and into the private office of Hanse Davion. "_...fond _adieu[/i], Prince Davion. Do devote all your resources to fighting the Clans. You do [/i]not_ want to go to war with me._"

I didn't recognize the voice, but I recognized the insignia on the packaging. The green triangle and hand-holding sword of House Liao's Capellan Confederation. Ah, Sun-Tzu Liao. Whatever his successes, I couldn't help but think of him as an opportunistic weasel who exploited the conflict with the Clans for his family's aggrandizement, even when it threatened the ability of the Inner Sphere to fight the greater threat.

Heh, maybe I should pay him a visit some day. I'd have to bring some medicine for his crazy sister as a peace offering. If you don't know why, said sister is named Kali and leads a cult of Thuggees. Yes, she needs it. Although it's anyone's guess if it would _work_.

I brought out a hypospray of medication for an ailing heart and walked up to the figure slumped in the chair. A scan of the sonic confirmed for me that Prince Hanse was in the middle of a heart attack, one that would be fatal shortly.

And for the second time in this story, I willingly changed the path of history to save a life. And, sure, Hanse Davion's not quite so sweet or nice as Toya Ziyal... but he was still a man who was more good than bad, and someone the Inner Sphere needed in office for the time being.

Hanse's eyes fluttered open as I switched off Sun-Tzu's smug little message. He looked from the screen to me as I sat on his desk. "What... what just..."

"You had a heart attack, Your Highness," I explained. "I had to inject you with a cardial stabilizer. Don't move too much, it's not magic, it's just really good biochemistry, and your heart needs time to recover. I'd suggest staying in bed for a week or so, but I'm not an actual medical doctor and you may want to consult your physician."

He recovered enough to speak. "You," he said simply.

"Well, it's not as fancy a name as 'the Doctor', but it'll do," I jibed in reply.

The hints of a smile curled on his mouth. "Ah, Doctor. You've caught me in a bad moment."

"I don't think he actually intended for his message to have that effect," I noted. "Not that he'd have been against it."

"If not for the Clans I would gladly be rid of him," Hanse remarked coldly, picking up the container. "The news will be out in due time, but until then, can I count on..."

"...my silence? Yes." I stood up. "I'll wait until you get your physician present, but I must be going. I don't think Mister Curaitis will be very pleased with me gaining access to your office without being detected."

"He wouldn't. But we've all come to realize that if you were a danger to me or my family, you would have struck long ago."

"I imagined so. Now, please, call for aid and lay your head back. Don't sleep, but don't speak either. Save your strength."

I waited quietly until the Prince's physician arrived with a nurse. As they entered I shifted the TARDIS out.

I must now admit that this... was something of a selfish move on my part. Keeping Hanse alive was all well and good for the stability of the Inner Sphere. But that also meant Katherine would feel more free to join me, if that was her choice, and if I felt it the right thing to do.

I'm still not sure whether to be grateful or not that the birthday magic had run out, as I would later find that Hanse died two and a half weeks later from another heart attack. His old heart simply couldn't sustain the pressures of state.

There are those - one Donar Vadderung among them - who argue that history has an inertia. Changing history isn't as easy as you think as history will naturally try to drift back "on course", if it doesn't undo the change right then and there. It would seem that sometimes, even a Time Lord must bow to that inevitable power.

But I digress. It's time to bring this tale to it's natural close. 

* * *

I arrived for Katherine's twentieth birthday, the first after the Truce of Tukkayid and the death of her father. I arrived just as she finished treating the _mycosia_ I had given her fifteen years before from her perspective. "It's still alive I see," I remarked. "Gotten plenty of love, hasn't it?"

"Yes Doctor." Katherine looked back from the window sill she kept it on. While I was in my usual suit, she was in a sleeved blue blouse and yellow skirt. "It's survived so many frosts that I can't count them. I admit that as a girl I used to take it out into hard freeze just so I could break the ice off and find the pedals and leaves still alive underneath."

"That's not entirely loving, but you were giving it a bit of a watering when you did that," I remarked. "The Truce is holding?"

"It is. I'm told that occasionally Clan units raid above the truce line, but they never hold territory."

"It wouldn't do them any good when the Truce expires, and they know it. Honestly, their entire invasion was bloody silly, emphasis on the bloody. Little buggers don't have the first clue on how to rule anyone but their lower castes."

"Phelan may teach them otherwise," Katherine noted with a hint of bitterness.

"Ah, yes, the prodigal son who is alive but did not return," I stated. "He'll do good with them. He's on the good side of the line, you might say, working to keep the Clans from deciding the Truce needs to be eliminated."

"So Uncle Morgan says." Katherine let out a sigh. "Doctor, you're not here to talk about these things with me."

"I'm not."

"The war is over, but my father's dead. I... I don't know what to do. What I want. I have a duty but I..." She stopped speaking and rubbed at her eye. "You asked me what I wanted."

"I did."

"Why?"

"Because, Katherine, I can see that among other things, you've inherited your father's ambition. Ambition and desire are a potent mixture. I'd like to see what they've created."

Katherine smiled thinly and lowered her head. "I've had family and tutors tell me I should be the future ruler and not Victor. That he's too military."

"So they say," I said simply. "But he can be taught."

"And then there's his..." Katherine sighed. "The entire family knows about Omi Kurita, it seems."

"So it does."

"Ryan Steiner and others have been yelling that it's treason for Victor to be in love with Omi. There are many who will believe Victor is going to give them to the Kuritas to have Omi as a wife. Or they're mad at just the thought of him marrying her. The last time a Davion married a Kurita wasn't pretty. And it makes me wonder if Victor can rule with people like that around."

"Yes." I let her continue, wondering where she was going with this. I admit to some suspense. This was the time of truth, the time when I would find out whether all of my efforts were for naught.

Katherine seemed focused on her thoughts. "And I hear them talk like that and... I remember when you took me to Republic City for my birthday. I remember all of those monuments about the Hundred Years War, and how all of these people who lived there were once enemies. And then I realized how petty and stupid all of that sniping is," Katherine finished. "Victor isn't perfect. He doesn't know how to handle people because he's so wound up about sycophants. He's easily frustrated and he's focusing on the Clans so much he doesn't always see the other problems around him."

I swallowed. Was it all for nothing? Would even a nicer, kinder, even brave Katherine still seek to usurp her brother? Not out of megalomania, but out of kindness and love?

But I said nothing. I had to let her get her thoughts out.

"And they actually want me, Doctor, to be the heiress. They want me to take over. Maybe they think I'll be a better ruler, or easier to control, or that Victor and I will fight so much they can get more power by playing us against each other. And what's worse is that I don't know how well Victor will handle it when Mother abdicates in his favor. Sometimes I wonder if he _can_ be the ruler."

I tried not to swallow.

Katherine raised her head and her eyes met mine. I looked into them, almost wishing I could soulgaze like Harry just to see what was going on inside of her.

And then she finished speaking.

"But he's a good man. He'll be a good ruler. I have faith in him, I'm not going to undermine him," Katherine insisted. "That's not what I want."

I took a breath as I let her words loop in my head. Had I... had it...

Had it actually worked?

Had I been successful? Had I forestalled Katherine becoming the dictator and matricide that would have been her fate without my working my way into her life?

I realized the answer was yes. Yes, I had. But if I had, then what was her ambition?

"I'll tell you what I want, Doctor," Katherine said. "What I want... as much as I love my family, I wish I wasn't part of it. I don't want to be Princess of the Federated Commonwealth, I don't want to be Victor's Heir-Presumptive until he has an heir of his own."

"What I want, Doctor, what I've wanted for years, is to travel with _you_," Katherine admitted, smiling like she was lifting a burden off of her shoulders. "As much as it would horrify my family and the Court, I want to leave and join you in the TARDIS. I want to see the birth of stars and the forming of planets. I want to see the City-World of Coruscant, the Ancients' Atlantis, and all the other wonderful things you've said are out there. I want to meet the wizard Harry Dresden and Commander Shepard and all the other heroes you've told me about. I would give everything I have to just travel with you for the rest of my life."

I sat there, rendered utterly speechless.

"I can't, of course," Katherine admitted. "I can't just turn my back on my mother and Victor, not with Father having passed. They need me. I have duties, responsibilities. But I just wish I could get away from them."

By this time, I couldn't help it. I had to laugh lowly and smile. "Oh Katherine, my dear Katherine."

"Doctor?" She looked at me.

"Katherine, I... I'm humbled by this," I admitted. "I never realized... I thought when you grew up then you'd get wrapped up in this life and wouldn't be interested in running around the Multiverse."

"I've dreamed of it since I was a little girl," she told me.

"I see." I put my hands together in front of me. How ironic that I had acted to divert her ambition, to nudge her into being someone who could resist it... and now it was actually working against me. "Katherine, your sense of duty is... is what I'd expect. I'd just like to point something out." I leaned forward, as if to whisper a secret to her. "I'm a _time traveler_ my dear."

I saw the smile form on her face. It's something she had likely overlooked when talking about her duties versus her desires. But she clearly understood what I was saying.

"When's your next public appointment? A week from now?"

"Yes. And I have to be back for the Christmas social season."

"Very well. I'll have you back in a day or so."

"How long would we be gone?", Katherine asked.

I had only one reply to her on that.

"How about we find out?"

She jumped out of her chair at that point and dashed for her bedroom. I went to the TARDIS and opened it, waiting at the door until she returned, carrying several bags with her. She put them at the opening to the TARDIS and picked up the _mycosia_ flower in its pot. I smiled as she walked into the TARDIS and handed to me. "I want to be able to water it. In case we don't get back in time."

"Of course," I answered. "Want me to help you with those?"

"No," she insisted. "I'm not Princess of the Federated Commonwealth in here. I'm just Katherine. And I carry my own things." She reached down and, with some effort, picked them up and carried them in.

"Second left, door on the right. Excellent mattress," I said to her. I went to work on the TARDIS controls until she got back, a little winded but looking far more ready to burst out of her skin in excitement. "So, my dear Katherine... what do you want to see first?"

"All of it!", she insisted.

"That's a tall order," I answered, unable to keep the grin off my face. "Best we get started, eh?" I flipped a few more switches and set our destination while Katherine took up a place opposite me on the controls. She already knew not to touch. I could see her breathing was picking up. She was probably a little terrified at the prospect of what she was doing, but I could see that more than anything she was ecstatic.

So was I. Even considering taking her home sometimes... I had a Companion again. Someone I could share this wide and wondrous multiverse with.

I wasn't alone anymore.

"Been practicing your running?", I asked her, playing up the moment.

"I run every day," she insisted. And she certainly had the figure to prove it; lean muscles that barely broke the smoothness of her arms and the rest of her figure.

"Good. Because we're going to be doing a lot of running." I set my hand on the lever for the TARDIS engine. "Ready to go, Katherine?"

"I've been ready," she insisted.

"And a good girl, I'll note," I answered, remarking on my old promise to her when we first met. "Welcome to the TARDIS, Katherine."

I noted, with some pleasure, how her eyes burned with eagerness. It made the next bit a lot more fun.

I pulled back the lever and let out a happy shout for the first time in months.

"Tally ho!"


	11. Short 6 - Fun and Games

**Short 16 - Fun and Games**

It was one of those days.

After so many pleas from Katherine over the years of her life, I decided she was old enough (and fast enough) to meet "Sir Harry the Magic Knight," whom I once introduced to her through a puppet show.

It was a good thing I made sure of the "fast enough" part. Because, well, we are talking about spending time with Harry Dresden, Chicago's Wizard for Hire.

I won't bore you with the early details. I'll start us off _in media res_, if you will, just to get to the juicy bits. It even starts off in predictable fashion.

The building was on fire.

Katherine and Molly Carpenter were right on my heels as we finally got to the side door of the aforementioned building, an abandoned old warehouse in one of Chicago's (many) rusted out industrial areas. I plowed into it at full speed. It was a jarring, even painful impact, but the door gave way nonetheless and allowed us out onto the old parking lot. You know the kind; old and unmaintained with cracks that had weeds and grass growing out of them.

We all stopped and turned, illuminated by the flames roaring from every window. I gripped my sonic disruptor and sonic screwdriver, on in each hand, and was ready when the attack came.

The creature that erupted from the flames licking at the door looked like a frog crossed with a Jem'Hadar with the size of a Krogan. Its shrill scream split the night air, burns showing on parts of its body. Pitch black eyes glared at us with malice.

The creature charged.

I had, as of late, installed a new setting in my sonic disruptor: Setting 42. And it was to Setting 42 that I turned in this case.

The purple tip of the device lit up. There was no immediate result. Rather, the result only showed when the creature got to within three feet. Purple energy formed in front of it and showed the deflector field that was Setting 42.

My arm ached as I held the disruptor up against the creature. It would back off, turn a little, and try to attack from a new angle, but I kept the field on it at each turn. Each blow sent force into my arm, courtesy of force transference. I wouldn't be able to keep this up all night.

I wouldn't have to.

Harry erupted from the growing flames of the door we'd come through, looking rather singed but still very impressive and dramatic, with his staff and blasting rod already out and at the ready. As if we hadn't had enough flames tonight, he contributed more by sending a blast of fire into the side of the frog-thing battering at my shield. It screeched and disintegrated into ectoplasm.

He walked up to us and I remarked, "Well, this is what, the fourth building we've been in that you've set on fire?"

"Third," Harry corrected. "This one is on you. So much for 'my sonics don't work on wood'."

"Normally they don't and my thermal pulse wouldn't have even gotten a spark, but when some bloody careless wizard is flinging around wind and force spells like a mindless brute and ends up spilling kerosene everywhere, that's different."

"So you wanted me to let those frog demons eat your smug Time Lord face off, then?"

"No, what I wanted was a little _care_, if I wanted to see someone just blasting things around I'd have brought Korra or..."

As I finished, I overheard Katherine remark, "Are they always like this?"

I could frankly hear the grin when Molly replied, "Oh yeah. It's fun." And yes, I know you don't hear grins, but I could, just in the way she said it.

"I just saved your ass, Doc, and..."

There was shattering glass from the second floor, in one area of the building that hadn't caught complete fire yet. Several shapes jumped down, hissing and screeching.

"...and apparently we missed some," I finished for Harry. "Okay everyone, gather around." I pulled out my TARDIS remote. "It's time we go and..."

A slimy thing of dark red slipped out of one of the things' tongues and wrapped around my wrist. It pulled on me immediately, dragging me to the ground and yanking my TARDIS remote from my grasp. It disappeared down the disgusting thing's razor-toothed maw.

"What did you think I meant when I said 'frog demon'?" Harry pointed out as I tried to get to my feet. He nodded at Molly. Without a word, Molly grabbed Katherine's wrist and the two disappeared from sight behind a veil.

"That took me hours of careful work!", I protested. As I did so it shrieked again and made a leap.

I leaned back, still on my knees, and brought up the sonic disruptor again, keeping it in a swinging motion. "Harry, up high!", I shouted while triggering Setting 42. The creature landed on the force shield and was thrown off over my head by the motion I'd kept it in.

Harry threw a punch at it. Not a direct punch - that would probably have broken his hand (not every part of him is as hard as his skull) - but the motion of one. Kinetic energy surged from one or more of the rings on his hand and slammed into the airborne frog demon. It cried out in pain and anger as it flew beside me and slammed into an old metal container in the lot. The light from the flames was enough for me to see it explode into a mess of ectoplasm.

I scrambled to my feet in time to meet the next one. I switched to Setting 4 and blasted another one that was jumping at Harry's right side.

For those of you who love this kind of "badarse" thing, we ended up back to back. With Setting 42 I was protecting Harry from the rear while he was blasting the things left and right. At this point, "_Fuego_" was going to become a permanent ring in my ears, or so it felt.

And don't even get me started on the bloody smell.

When the last one went down we stood away from each other, taking in the carnage. "Well, so much for being quiet," I muttered. "And I suspect we scared off the summoner."

"Yeah."

And, certainly enough, we heard the squeal of tires in the distance. We turned to see a pair of rear red lights, looking like they were from a van or a truck, peel out of the parking lot and to the adjoining side road. "And there they go!" Harry took off running. "Let's get to the _Beetle_ Doc!"

"But my TARDIS remote...!" I ran the opposite direction, going for the metal container where the beast that had swallowed my remote had met its end. The ectoplasm was already drying up, but the fires of the burning building were not a strong light to look either. I scrambled for the sonic and began to scan for it. I couldn't find a trace, however, and a terrible suspicion filled my head. Whomever was in the van must have grabbed it.

Just my luck. Or rather, my luck when hanging around Dresden.

The squeal of tires and the coughing sputtering of an old gasoline engine made me turn my head. Harry pulled up in the _Blue Beetle_. "We'll find it later, get in!"

I obliged, squeezing myself into the passenger seat of the abysmally small Volkswagen Bug. Katherine was already cooped up in the back seat with Molly. "Hey Doctor, I..."

Before Molly could finish, Harry hit the gas and made the engine roar its little heart out. We moved toward the end of the road. The tracking spell compass he'd used to find the building we'd just burnt down was still active and pointing north along the side road. The _Beetle_ sounded like it might cough its last any moment, but somehow the ancient car kept going. "We could use Murphy's motorcycle right now," I muttered. "Or Thomas' Hummer."

"The _Beetle_ is steady, we'll make it," Harry countered. Tires squealed as we swerved off one side road and to another, leading to one of the major through-fares of the old industrial park. In the distance I could make out two pinpricks of red light. Harry's foot pressed the gas pedal all the way to the floor. The _Beetle_'s engine protested but kept going.

Not exactly the most glamorous car chase I've ever seen, or been in.

"I think they snatched my TARDIS remote," i said.

"Yeah? All the more reason to catch them."

"Doctor..." Katherine began.

She was interrupted by a clanging on the hood. A small, sprightly little demon landed on it, hissing at us. "Oh hell," Harry muttered.

"Appropriate choice of words, Harry," I pointed out, struggling to get the sonic disruptor out. I got it out and pointed it out the window as the little thing dug its claws into the hood of the _Beetle_, beginning to peel the metal away. I used a setting 4 blast to knock it off the hood. It screeched and hit the ground in front of us. Ectoplasm showered upward as we ran the thing over.

By this point we'd caught up to the vehicle in question, definitely a van. It had some painting on it, but the street lights were too few and far between to really see what the shapes were. The van swerved onto the main road and Harry swung hard to follow it, jostling all of us in the process.

Out on the main road, traffic was regular. We weaved around lanes pursuing the van. Harry's driving left much to be desired, in my view.

Ahead of his the van raced through an intersection with a red light. I took out the sonic and used it on the lights, switching them to green and the others to red. Tires squealed and people yelled as we raced through the intersection.

That was thrilling enough, but what came next was even worse. Desperate to evade us, the van started moving across the middle of the road into oncoming traffic. Harry glowered and tried to avoid doing the same, but as the van moved ahead of us he started to do the same.

"Can't we just track them like before?", Katherine asked.

"The tracking spell's connection loses focus," Harry explained, "and if they know what they're doing, they'll go take a shower and use the water to beat the tracking spell."

"You can do that?"

"Running water degrades magic and connections drawn from magic," Molly said to her.

Harry kept his eyes on the road, at least, but that was no comfort as he slipped back into oncoming traffic right behind the van we were pursuing. As he pushed ahead, barely, over the traffic actually going the right away, bright headlights shone ahead of us.

The headlights of an eighteen wheeler.

"Harry, truck," I pointed out.

"I see it."

And yet he didn't get back over, instead trying to force the _Beetle_ to pass the car beside us. The van ahead swerved back into the proper side.

We didn't.

"Harry, _truck_!"

"_I see it, Doc!_"

"_Dresden!_"

I was certain we'd hit the thing, but at the last moment Harry swerved us back on the right side of the road, barely fitting the _Beetle_ in between two other vehicles. The truck's horn blared angrily as it passed us by.

I forced myself to draw in a breath. "How about I drive before you get us all killed?"

"Oh, stop your belly-aching."

I would have said more, but there was another light coming, so I made sure to switch it to green in time for us to go through. After we went through the van veered off on another road, heading toward what looked to be a row of old commercial and warehouse structures. As we pursued I could hear the distant rumbling of a train.

Naturally, there were tracks ahead of us. And the stop was flashing red and the arms coming down to hold back traffic. Whomever was in the van didn't care and sped through them, snapping the arm off in the process. Harry... well, I'd say he put his pedal to the floor, but it was already there.

"Harry, you're not going to beat a..."

"Yes I am!"

"_That's a bloody train, Dresden!_"

"_I know!_

Despite my concern, he plowed on ahead, the train's warning whistle drowning out my words as we rushed up over the rails. I looked toward Harry and the lights of the locomotive beyond. They were blinding. Behind us Molly and Katherine actually let out surprised yelps at how close this was.

The _Beetle_ got through with a second to spare.

This time it took me about ten seconds to regain my breath. "Harry, you are _bloody insane!_"

"It's one of my endearing qualities," he retorted.

"And you're bloody well enjoying this too!", I accused.

"It's what I live for, Doc."

I drew in another breath, knowing I'd never win the discussion.

The van kept up the chase, weaving in and out of parking lots, and finally seemed to have settled on a destination; a worn down old warehouse much like the one we'd just burnt down. We pulled up alongside as dark-robed figures jumped out of the vehicle. "Doctor, I..."

"Molly, put a veil on and get the chalk dust," Harry ordered, ignoring that she had started speaking. "Kat can help you."

"A circle?"

"Yeah. Follow along and get one laid down around them. We don't need them summoning more nasties." Harry looked over at me as I unfolded from where I'd been scrunched into the _Beetle_. The tension of the chase had made the sensation of stiffness worse, I must say. "Coming?"

"Just so long as you don't set this one on fire," I grumbled.

"Bite me."

We entered the building, a one story structure this time, and after passing some empty rooms that had once been building offices were in the open warehouse area of the building. The dark-robed figures turned out to be dark-jacketed figures, dressed up like people who thought Goth garb was too subdued. They looked toward us, most looking fearful and not very enthused.

But one had the look about him that said he was going over the bend. His eyes glared with hate, the kind of deep swelling hate you find from someone who finds life isn't giving him what he wants.

Harry let out something between a sigh and a groan. "You? Here I was worried about a dark sorcerer running around Chicago and it's just _you_?"

"And he is...?" I let the question hang.

"I warned you to stop interfering with my dark designs!", the young man declared pretentiously.

Something in my head clicked. I realized who this little would-be sorcerer was.

"Hey, Darth Wannabe, a smoke bomb is one thing, but this?!" Harry stuck a finger in his face. "You don't play with demons, kid, you're just screwing yourself over."

"People like you always say that. You always try to keep us under your boots," the young man - "Darth Wannabe" as Harry called him - hissed. "But I've seen true power now. I know I was destined to wield this dark power! I won't stop for the likes of you."

"I'm sure you think you're rather impressive young man, but these are forces beyond your ken."

"No! I've controlled them! I can do it again! Behold, I'll summon one..."

Harry closed the distance in one stride and decked the fool.

The rest of his "coven" looked on in shock as Darth Wannabe fell over. He didn't move after hitting the ground.

"They always talk too much," Harry said. He eyed the others. "I'm going to tell you straight, kids. This kind of thing can get your heads chopped off. The White Council of Wizards is always on the lookout for people who break the Laws of Magic, and binding creatures, even demons, falls under that. Do yourselves a favor and show me how your fearless, brainless leader managed to bring those things into the world."

There was silence from the assembled for several seconds. Harry's look turned into a glare. One of them, who by looking a little singed revealed herself as having been present at the last building, finally looked up and went over to a table. She brought a leather-bound book over. "Just... just don't hurt us," she pleaded.

"I'm not here to hurt anyone, I'm trying to keep you from hurting yourselves," Harry explained. "This kind of stuff is beyond dangerous. It's like juggling with nitroglycerine. Demons don't take orders very well and will use the first opening they get to turn on you." He looked over the book. Behind the kids Molly and Katherine became visible, the chalk dust circle laid carefully around the room. "Where did you get this?"

"Oh, uh... some bookstore in Milwaukee," the girl answered.

"A name?"

I brought out my sonic and let Harry finish his interrogation as I scanned for my remote. Much to my frustration, I was getting no sign of it. "Now, one of you lot has a locket of mine, and I'm going to be very cross if you don't return it," I declared.

They all looked at one another in confusion.

"Doctor," Katherine said. "I should..."

"Not now." I sighed and looked at the girl who'd given Harry the book. "Which one of you went up to that metal container and fished my locket out from the ectoplasm, hrm? It's very important."

The girl stared at me in fright. "Uh... we didn't... we watched the fight and.. and ran..."

I could hear truth in her voice. Which meant I had no bloody idea where...

My TARDIS remote dangled in front of my eyes.

There was a slight grin on Molly's face as she held it up. "As we've been trying to tell you, Doctor, we picked it up during the fight."

I blinked. "Oh. Well... thank you Molly, Katherine. Excellent thinking there." I coughed and took the locket to return it to my pocket. 

* * *

After making all the necessary arrangements for Darth Wannabe and his rather strained coven, the four of us stood outside and looked up into the night sky. "Well, that was the usual fun and games, wasn't it?", I remarked.

"Good times, Doc, good times," Harry agreed. "So, anyone hungry?"

"Depends. Were the Carpenters cooking tonight?"

"Afraid not. But my favorite BK is on the way back to the apartment."

I frowned. "Burger King, Harry? Really?"

"Like I've been telling you, _don't diss the King_."

Katherine looked at us in confusion. "'Burger King'?"

"They don't have Burger Kings where you're from, Kat?", Harry asked. "Well, hop on in, your Whopper is on me."

I shook my head, stifling some chuckles even as I, as always, muttered, "You're _still_ a gastrointestinal menace, Harry Dresden."

"No Whopper for you, Doc," Harry retorted. "Not for someone who insults the King."

I rolled my eyes and let out a laugh. That's all I really could do, wasn't it?

All in all... a typical outing. Well, mostly typical.

After all, we didn't burn down the second building.


	12. Short 7 - Justice Be Done

**Short 17 - Justice Be Done**

Katherine and I stood at the doorway of the TARDIS and looked up into the night sky, a sky dominated with the Carinae Nebula. It was a pretty and lovely sight, to be sure. "It's beautiful," Katherine agreed. "And what planet is this?"

"Oh, just another Earth-like planet out of oh so many," I replied. "They'll call this one Otrera in a few decades. It's not inhabited right now, that would have been... awkward."

We spent some time there, taking in the sights of the unsettled planet and its gorgeous sky. Katherine let out a little yawn, trying to keep me from noticing. "All tuckered out, are you?", I asked.

"Yes," she admitted. "I hate to admit it."

"Well, it's that stern Inner Sphere nobility part of you, don't want to admit weakness." I stepped back into the TARDIS first, prompting her to do the same. "Looking to get back to the Christmas social season, eh?"

"No," Katherine admitted. "Well... I am doing some good. There are charities I'm supporting, and it _is_ Christmas."

"That is. Come on, I'll get you back home. We've done enough running this time."

"I should say so," she said, smiling and fighting another yawn. "You always seem to run into trouble, but I've never seen two sides go after you like that."

"Yes, well..." I sighed. "I'm not much a fan of the Imperium of Man and they're not much fans of me. And the Orks, well, they're bloody Orks, what more is there to say?"

"What about that other orc, though?"

"Oh, Nutt? Orc with a 'c' instead of a 'k'. Wonderful chap. That's the key difference, there. The 'k'." I finished flipping switches and took the control lever. I pulled it back without a word and shifted the TARDIS out.

And I nearly fell over from the shaking. Katherine did, yelping as she landed. "Blast it, what's wrong, girl? Hrm? Dimensional knot? Better..." I checked the readings. "Oh dear, it's a falling building. We've materialized into..."

That was when I saw the life sign.

"Stay here!" I dashed over to the door and threw it open. It was a home of some sort. The sonic was picking up powerful energy waves buffeting the building and threatening to bring it down any second.

I heard a whimper of fear and looked under a coffee table to find a little girl in blue pants and a sleeved shirt. Green eyes looked back at me and in that moment I could see she was of Asian ancestry even with her lighter complexion. "Come on, little one," I called out. "The building is falling down, we have to get you to safety."

"Who are you?", she asked, fearful.

"I'm the Doctor," I answered. "I'm here to help."

The building shuddered again. Pieces of drywall and structure began to fall around us. "Are you a friend of my Daddy?", she asked.

"I don't know, but I try to be friends with everyone. Come along, there's nothing to be afraid of..." Except, of course, for the falling building, but I wasn't going to bring that up and scare the girl further.

With clear reluctance she came out enough for me to pick her up. I scooped her into my arms and returned to the TARDIS. Behind me the roar of the collapsing building built to the point that I knew we'd have both been crushed if we'd stayed just a few seconds longer.

Katherine met me inside the TARDIS. "Doctor, what's...?"

"No time!" I put the little girl into her arms and raced for the controls. "The whole bloody building is coming down around us," I said. "Shifting us out now!"

As I finished, Katherine looked at the little girl who was, obviously, impressed by the interior of the TARDIS. Although not as impressed as I thought she'd be. The girl looked at her and asked, "Who're you?"

"I'm Katherine. And you are...?"

"Lian," she answered.

I lifted my head from the controls as I heard that. "Lian? That's your name?"

"Uh-huh," she answered, nodding.

I felt a shudder of energy go through me. "You... is your name Lian _Harper_?", I asked.

"Uh-huh."

I could only react one way at that.

I let out a cry of triumph, beginning to laugh as I did. "Oh, my dear, you certainly know where I'm needed!", I shouted, patting the controls of the TARDIS.

"Doctor?" Katherine set Lian down and gave me a bewildered look. "What is it?"

"Perfect timing, my dear Katherine! Perfect timing!" I began altering the TARDIS' destination. "And now that I know _when_ we are, I've got some business to attend to. Would you please get the medical kit? The full one, I'm going to need it."

Katherine nodded and headed into the lower area of the control room. That left Lian alone with me. "How did you know my name?", she asked, looking up at me.

"Oh, I know quite a few names, my dear," I answered, making my final adjustment. "And I do know your father. Not well, I'm afraid we haven't had a chance to work together, but I do know him. Good man. He loves you to death."

He'd also just had half his right arm chopped off by a maniac, but I'd deal with that momentarily.

"Now, Lian, I need you to stay inside the TARDIS until it's safe. I'm taking you to your Dad's friends, but there's a dangerous man there. Stay with Katherine, okay? When it's over, they'll take you to your Dad."

"Okay." She looked up at the engine. "What is that sound?"

_VWORP VWORP VWORP_ was the sound, of course. "Oh, that's the TARDIS engine, my dear. She makes that sound whenever I move her. It's a lovely sound, loveliest sound in all the multiverse. Now stay here, and there may be some candy in it too." I winked at her and went for the door.

The scenery around me was polished, shiny metal. I recognized the figures, some of them hurt, assembled in the chamber I'd materialized us into, but my focus was on the one in the middle, the only one bound, held in place by a chair and bonds made of pure green light... pure willpower, actually. It was to my chagrin that he was primarily clad in purple, my favorite color, although the helmet on his head was a clashing light gray, silverish thing.

"Ah, hello everyone," I said. "I'm never entirely sure _when_ I am when I visit you, so in case we've yet to meet, I'm the Doctor." I snapped my fingers, closing the TARDIS door.

"You helped Superman once." The speaker was the lovely, very married Dinah Lance, otherwise known as Black Canary.

"Yes. Ah, Hal, is this before or after that whole mess on..."

"...Djama? After." Hal Jordan, Green Lantern, nodded at me. "Good to see you, Doctor. But we're in the middle of..."

"...interrogating this fellow, yes," I finished. "He just triggered his device in Star City."

That won me looks of horror from everyone. Except the prisoner, who had a smirk... but one that was just slightly less than full. "Ah, you don't know about me, do you Prometheus?" I smiled. "First things first. Star City needs help."

"Right."

I left Dinah to do the work of assigning heroes to go to the city's aid. "Arrow, don't worry," I called out. "Lian's in the TARDIS. I picked her up."

"How did you know Prometheus was doing this?", he asked.

I could have honestly answered 'Because I read it in a very frustrating comic book once', but that would be silly... and not entirely accurate for me at the time since I couldn't remember real fact from formerly-fiction fact at that stage anyway. Instead my answer was, "I didn't, my TARDIS did. Although I knew about this event. Time traveler and all."

"I don't know who you are..."

"...'but you're going to blah blah whatever'," I finished for the villain. "Honestly, threats?"

"I've still got devices across the continent," he declared. "I want my freedom, or I let them all go off."

"And given your knowledge of their powers, I'm sure you've got some kind of countermeasures against them," I said. "You know, that helmet of yours is interesting. Direct neural interface allowing prediction of actions based on profiles inside, yes? Don't answer that. The direct part is the important one. _Direct_ neural interface. Now, I'm sure you have all sorts of electronic countermeasures from technology you've seen, but I do wonder..." I brought out my sonic screwdriver. "...if it will work against this. Sonic screwdriver, finest in Gallifreyan technology. How about we try, hrm?"

"Doctor..." Hal looked at me with some concern. "This isn't going to be like Djama, is it?"

"Oh, come now, that was a fluke. I didn't realize the circuit was there in time. Besides, we _did_ get out." Seeing his look, I amended "Barely" in concession.

I didn't see a point in playing around any longer so, without ado, I pointed the sonic at his helmet and triggered it. He let out a cry of pain and confusion as I used the sonic to interface with his helmet, and through it to his brain. "You know, it's only hurting because you're fighting the connection. You should know your own technology, I would think." I pulled in closer as he squirmed inside of Hal's construct-chair. "Ah, codes, codes... look at that, I wasn't even sure this would _work_. You really should look into better firewall software... presuming you put the helmet on again, and I'd advise you not to."

"You... can't... do this!", Prometheus insisted.

"I just did," I retorted. I brought the sonic up and used it to transmit the codes into the Watchtower systems. "There. You should be able to remotely disable Prometheus' weapons now."

"You... you..." I could feel rage building up inside Prometheus.

"I ruined everything," I finished for him. And then I leaned in close. "Let me explain something to you. I am not a 'hero'. I am not a 'cape'. I am a _Time Lord_. I don't follow their code, I follow my own. So I'm giving you one chance, _one bloody chance_, to walk away from this and into a nice jail cell where you'll accept whatever fate the courts have for you. And I had better never hear about you coming back. Because there will be _no second chances_. I'll make you regret ever building that bloody helmet."

At that point I turned away, ready to get Lian and take her to see her wounded father.

Prometheus is a smart bugger, but he's got a temper too. His scheme was ruined, he couldn't bargain those cities' safety away for freedom, he had nothing left but either surrender or payback.

I was quite unsurprised that he chose the latter.

Hal was staying to his side to avoid giving him a shot. Prometheus had apparently planned for the possibility of getting restrained as he was, however, and with a movement his arm was free, detaching from an oversized gauntlet, and his hand was gripping a device. It emitted a short pulse of energy that hit Hal before he could adjust to defend himself, sending the Green Lantern to his knees and causing his restraint construct to vanish.

I was already in the middle of turning when he brought his weapon over to face me. He brought it up... and dropped it as it exploded in sparks, courtesy of my sonic screwdriver. "No second chances," I quietly reminded him before I triggered the sonic again. This time, it was at his helmet.

Set for full active feedback.

Into a direct neural interface.

Prometheus screamed. It was a rather horrible scream. And it only ended as he fell to the ground, unconscious. Comatose, frankly.

Hal was getting back to his feet as I stepped up to the fallen man and used my sonic on him. "Well, that's quite a bad amount of brain damage," I remarked in a low voice. "He'll live, but he won't be dressing up in my favorite color anymore."

"You meant for him to do that," Hal said, only a slight bit of accusation in his tone.

"No," I replied. "I simply anticipated he would. Now... I'd better see to Roy's arm. I might be able to save it."

* * *

Some hours later Katherine was yawning and ready to collapse while we watched Roy Harper, aka the Red Arrow, hold his daughter with his newly re-attached arm. It was a tough job, and required the assistance of the superhero medical community, but the advanced technology I had in my med kits allowed for the restoration of the arm with about a 90% recovery of use. It might take time for Roy to put the red tights back on, but... well, it was worth it.

Especially given what I'd saved him from; the loss of his dear Lian.

She was coloring away, under her father's watchful eye, as I overheard the League talk about the cleanup of Prometheus' devices and of Star City. Other citizens of Oliver Queen's city had not had me there to save them, I must sadly report. Prometheus had yet claimed his price in blood.

He was there too, actually, in a nearby bed, oblivious to the world.

"Doctor..." Katherine looked up at me, exhausted. "Did you have to do that to him?"

I didn't answer.

"Doctor?"

"Probably not," I conceded.

"Then... why?"

"Because, Katherine, Good is not always Nice. Because men like that can't always be bargained with." I crossed my arms. "He would have murdered millions out of a vendetta. And when he attacked me, he proved he wasn't going to repent of that. He had to be dealt with."

"I don't think these... 'superheroes' are very happy with you for doing that," she pointed out.

"Yes and no. It's... something they feel to keep themselves in control. It's why I don't do this every time either, if I went about doing it all the time, I'd become... something terrible." I smiled at her. "That's why company's good for me. You keep me honest, keep me thinking about these things."

"You're welcome, Doctor," she answered. And then she yawned even louder. "I'm sorry, I'm just..."

"You'll be back in your bed soon enough. It's about time we go before I wear out the welcome." I brought out the TARDIS remote.

Before I could activate it, Lian came up to us with a paper in her hands. She offered it to me like a precious gift. "Well, what have we here?", I asked, leaning down.

"It's you and your friend and me and Daddy and Mia..." She went about explaining the colorful crayon drawing, with my likeness and Katherine's standing to either side of a blue square clearly meant to be the TARDIS. "I made it for you."

"That is very generous," I said. "You will make quite the fine artist one day, Lian." I accepted the paper with one hand and used the other to offer a handshake. "I'll be going now, but I may be back."

"Okay," she said. She stepped back and stood beside her father's bed.

"Thank you," Roy Harper said.

"You're welcome as well, Mister Harper. Do take care." I held up the TARDIS remote and used it to materialize the TARDIS around us.

Once we were inside, I went for the controls while Katherine took a seat on the stairs. "You have a penchant, Doctor, for rescuing little girls," Katherine teased.

"Well, I rescue a lot of people, it's just sometimes memorable when it's the little girl. Everyone remembers the little girls and the old ladies..." I pulled back the TARDIS lever to shift us away. When I looked back over, I saw Katherine was virtually asleep herself, laying along the stair. I allowed myself a small smile and began the process of shifting us somewhere quiet. After that I gently carried her to my usual hammock and left her in it to sleep. I could sleep later, after all; I still had a project to finish building.

I turned and faced the hologram of my TARDIS, taking the form of a girl I had in my head, a creation of my imagination that my TARDIS felt was most like her. "Cat," I said, using my name for her. "Thank you."

"You needed to be there," the TARDIS answered. "You should go and rest, my Doctor. Your project will be waiting for you in the morning."

I went to object and found myself yawning. "Yes, maybe it's for the best," I conceded.

First things first, though. I took Lian's drawing and found a place above the TARDIS controls for it. Once it was snug and in place I walked away, smiling, to take up a nap in my library recliner.


	13. Episode 6 - Keeping Promises

**Episode 14 - Keeping Promises**

Katherine and I had several journeys under our belt when this story begins. It was almost her 21st birthday at this point and I had taken her on another trip before her birthday gala was to be held.

We stood at the TARDIS looking out into space, this time at a nebula that made me think of the Eagle nebula, but with purple and violet and blue instead. "Gorgeous," Katherine breathed.

"My favorite color, too," I added. "So, birthday girl. You're at that magic number of 21. Have anything you want as a present?"

Katherine smiled softly and looked over at me. "I do have one request, yes."

"Somewhere special, then?", I asked.

"You could say that. But it's not what you're thinking."

"Oh?"

"No." She took my hand. "Much to my mother's dismay, I am still without a consort. I could use a dance partner at my birthday party."

"well, I'm sure we could..." I saw the look on her face. "Me? You want it to be me?"

"Yes."

"I suspect Tharkad high society won't survive the Drunk Giraffe and the Funky Chicken," I pointed out.

That caused her to laugh. "That would be hilarious," Katherine agreed. "But I think a more conventional dance will be in order."

I blanched. "Katherine, you know I'm not much for..."

"You love the thought and you know it," Katherine said, interrupting. "Promise me you'll be there, Doctor."

Seeing the look on her face I knew there was no getting out of it. I let out an exaggerated sigh. "Sure, I'll come. We'll have a dance."

"Good." She went back to the TARDIS controls. "So, where to next?"

"Well, there are plenty of..." I was interrupted by beeping from the lower section of the control room. I took the stairs down and faced the device I'd spent months putting together. It was about my height, a series of systems tied together in a single structure with an emitter hanging over the top. Green lights were flashing on it. "The simulations are done already?", I said in wonder. I went up to it and checked the results. As I did, a smile crossed my face. "Haha! Excellent. It should work! Well, probably..."

"Doctor?" Katherine looked down over the railing. "Is that your secret project you keep going on about?"

"Yes, yes it is," I answered. "It's taken me months of work and study. Better part of a year now, actually. Remind me to return to the Watchtower some time and thank Doctor Palmer, his notes were most useful."

"Weren't you going back to deliver medication to that one young lady from Star City?"

"Already did. Doctor Franklin was kind enough to provide the HIV cure for Mia. Saved me the trouble of putting one together." I clapped my hands. "Okay, looks like everything is in order. Just have to get us to the right cosmos and timeframe." I dashed back to the stairs and up to the controls.

"Doctor, if I may..." Katherine leaned against the rail as I got to the controls. "What is this project about?"

I looked up at her and lowered my eyes. "Keeping a promise," I answered. "A very important promise."

"Oh?"

"I... well, you'll find out soon enough." I winked at her. "You know me, I always love to keep a bit of mystery." I finished switching around knobs and switches to get the coordinates I wanted. "Here we go... tally ho!" I pulled back on the lever.

_VWORP VWORP VWORP_.

As we shifted I felt the TARDIS rumble a little. "Oh my. Slight disturbance. She'll be fine though." When the engine stopped I raced by Katherine, snatching up my lucky fez along the way.

"Doctor, really?", Katherine asked, stifling a giggle.

"It's my lucky fez," I insisted. "I always wear it for the big things. Fezzes are cool." I winked at Katherine before I turned out threw open the door. "Well, not what I expected."

I had figured I was coming out into a city, but instead it was a structure under an open night sky, unblemished by light pollution. I stepped out onto white flooring of a raised platform, a slab of white in the middle with a golden railing at the head of it. I brought the sonic out as I approached it, Katherine behind me. When we got up beside it, Katherine took my arm as she saw the figure laying on it. "Who is she?", Katherine asked.

I lowered my eyes and brought my sonic up to scan. "Homura," I said lowly. "Her name is Homura Akemi."

Homura was unconscious, or rather comatose, laying like she was prepared for a coffin with a black bow set with a rose laying under her hands. I drew in a sigh of guilt and set my hand on her's. "I'm sorry," I murmured. "But I'm here. I'll make it better."

I noticed her soul gem wasn't on either hand, meaning it was in its normal form, much like a Faberge egg... if Faberge eggs were made to hold souls. I looked up and found it above her, above the golden rail and seahorse shape at the head of her resting place. A rather impressive energy field of lattice energy structures moved about it. Inside it had turned almost completely dark, definitely a bad sign. "Quantum isolation field," I said, holding the sonic up to it. "How quaint. And that narrows down the field of suspects, doesn't it... _Incubator_?"

Speak the Devil's name and, well, you know how that goes.

"And who are you?", a voice asked. Not just a voice but a chorus of them. Katherine looked around, startled, as golden circles levitated around us, red eyes showing inside. From the darkness of the shadows in this little structure one little form emerged on the far wall and jumped over to join us.

"What is that thing?", Katherine asked.

"An Incubator," I answered. "Well, the Incubator I should say. Hive mind, biodrones. They look like cute cats with bunny ears. It sometimes calls itself Kyubey because it sounds cute. I call it the Bunnycat of Lies."

"Who are you?", I was asked.

"I'm the Doctor," I answered, bemused that for the third time I was introducing myself to the thing. We had a tie so far; our first encounter it had gotten the better of me (I like to think falling off a bloody skyscraper and then a satellite dish contributed, though) and the second time I'd shooed it off. Now... well, best of three, it looked like. "I'm a Time Lord. This is my Companion. No, we're not interested in any deals you have in mind."

"Doctor?", Katherine asked, a little confused.

"Remember how Harry and I warned you about the Sidhe and to never make deals with one?", I reminded her. "Same rule here this."

"I sense great hostility, I am uncertain as to what we have done to offend you," Kyubey protested.

"Oh, of course, you always play that innocence card," I guffawed. "Tell me, actually, don't... I can guess for myself." I gestured to our surroundings. "This is all an experiment of your's. Homura is your guinea pig. You want to test why magical girls fade from existence when their soul gems become irreversibly corrupted. Perhaps she mentioned something to you of a former version of the world where they didn't."

"My, you know quite a lot, Doctor."

"Again, Time Lord." I held up my sonic toward it. "I'll ask kindly once. Lower the quantum field."

"I'm afraid I don't see the benefit to such an action."

"Is this the part where you bring up your obsession with entropy? Because frankly..."

There was a shift in the air around us. Two black-clad figures materialized out of thin air around me and grabbed me by the arms. Looking at them and their otherworldly, hand-drawn appearance, I realized they were familiars.

"It would appear that Homura has sensed you and sent an invitation to enter the field, Doctor." Kyubey looked like he was smiling. Granted, he always looked that way, but it looked rather fiendish. "It will make the experiment more interesting."

Katherine went up and grabbed one of the familiars, trying to make it let me go. It shrugged her off, hitting her with its arm and knocking her to the ground in front of the TARDIS. "Doctor!" She reached out for me.

"Get back in the TARDIS! Be ready when I call you! Be ready, Katherine!" I could already feel time-space warping around me. However this "invitation" worked, I was about to know soon enough.

The world seemed to drop out from under me. I felt the two familiars let me go and hit the ground a moment later. Above me the night sky looked, well, normal. And around me, there was a city... ah yes, Mitakihara. It was lit up brightly as far as the eye could see.

Of course it was Mitakihara. Why wouldn't it be? Hadn't I... I...

My head began to ache. I felt something in it, something clamping down my thoughts, my memories. It was strangely familiar, which isn't surprising given I'd already had my memories taken before, just that at the time even that was something I rarely could remember.

_No, I'm not just supposed to be here!_ I pushed my mind against the effect, forcing myself to think, to feel, to _remember_. This place was not real. It was... a pocket dimension, not just that, it was a labyrinth. A pocket of distorted space-time created by a magical girl giving in to despair. I'd been pulled in.

Whatever was trying to suppress my memories began to slacken. I wasn't sure why. Maybe it was because I'd been conscious of the transition, or my Time Lord brain was more robust than it expected... either way it somehow left me resistant and allowed my thoughts and memories to re-impose themselves. I looked out at the city and remembered what I was here for.

I'd come to keep a promise. And if I was going to keep that promise... I was going to have to save Homura from this latest plot by the Incubators.

I suppose I shouldn't have been too surprised that it wasn't going to be that easy.

* * *

It was an odd place, this false Mitakihara. As authentic as it looked, there were little problems. The zeppelins in the sky made me think of Gotham City, for one. And it wasn't just that kind of problem. I could feel the slight warping of time-space around me, a sort of spatial "offness" that you don't feel elsewhere. The TARDIS didn't feel like this either; this wasn't a well-maintained pocket dimension at all. It was something... oily and wrong.

I had felt it once before.

Namely, when the TARDIS had crash-landed into Mitakihara during _Walpurgisnacht_'s attack.

In other words, I was trapped in a witch's labyrinth. Or, more accurately, _Homura_'s labyrinth. Which meant she was already on the cusp of witchhood, beyond my power to save her. And I couldn't let that happen.

Okay, first things first. I had to get down.

I looked around at the building I had been placed on. There was a door leading to what I presumed were the fire stairs. I moved down as quickly as I could until I found the top floor's door. I walked into what looked to be a normal office building and followed signs to an elevator door. I hit the call button and... nothing.

A quick scan with my sonic screwdriver confirmed that it wasn't a real elevator. It was a prop. The whole bloody building was a prop.

I let out a sigh and returned to the stairs, taking them as quickly as I dared. Gravity functioned, so it wasn't as hard as going _up_ would be, but it still took me the better part of ten minutes and left me a bit winded at the bottom. I went out into the streets and the lifeless, faceless beings milling about in it, emulating the evening cycle of a city. I brought out the sonic and looked for something that was actually real.

The sonic pulsed faintly, indicating there was real life in the general vicinity. I moved along at a brisk pace, looking for it, watching the purple tip pulse with greater frequency.

As it turned out, I didn't need it to find life. All I had to do was follow the gunfire.

It led me to the battered remnants of a hollowed out building. Even in this oily distorted world I could feel the more precise shifts of someone slipping into a slower time stream, moving faster than anyone from normal perspective. It was a familiar sensation.

All that was left was to determine who Homura was fighting.

I pulled out the sonic disruptor and held it up as I moved in, setting 42 active and waiting should any rounds fly my way. I crawled over rubble as the thundercracks of firearms, manmade and magical constructs in alternating cracks, went off ahead and above me. Moving around one column I got a glimpse of yellow and white, leading my eyes to track until I found...

Mami Tomoe. And Homura. Fighting _each other_.

It was rather impressive, honestly. And Mami's skills as a tactician were on full display; I could barely make out the whisper of a string, cloaked from the human eye, connecting her to Homura's ankle; an ingenious solution to Homura's time shifting. They flipped in and out of my frame of reference, as if the world was a skipping record.

It was a good thing I had my sonic disruptor ready. Bullets struck the protective dome I had it generating, ricocheting away from me. I took cover to ensure I didn't take a low angle ricochet that went under the disruptor's protective field.

I wasn't sure what was going on here, why they would be fighting like this, but the important thing was that I had to get to them, talk them down, and warn them about what was going on.

Another series of cracks overhead led to more masonry and stone falling around me. I could hear a sudden cry of surprise and pain. Had...?

No, it wasn't from either of them.

I kept to cover as best as I could as I followed the cries to their source. It was a small girl, with white hair and dark clothing, although given the amount of stone on her I couldn't see much of what she had on. And my sonic made it clear she was alive, not simply another puppet of this false world. I ran up and started grabbing debris, pulling it off of her. "Hold on, I'll get you out!"

The high-pitched voice of a very young girl replied with, "Who are you?"

Before I could answer there was a big, big explosion of thundercracks. Bullets went flying everywhere. I focused on keeping the protective field up so we wouldn't be hit by anything.

It worked rather well, so I was briefly surprised when an impact smacked into my head.

Very briefly, since upon the impact everything went black.

* * *

I returned to awareness with a severe pain in my head. I moaned and sat up, opening my eyes. The small girl I'd helped was close, enough to see the strange heterochromatic eye colors of yellow and orange, and beside her Mami was kneeling over, not looking the least bit disheveled by her fight.

"Doctor, are you okay? What are you doing here?"

I blinked and looked at her. "...how do you remember me?"

"I..." She blinked. "I've been remembering many things in the last few minutes. Homura was right about that."

I banished the throbbing in my head. "Where is she? Is she alright?"

"Someone took her. I think it was Sayaka." She showed me a fire extinguisher that clearly had taken a sword hit.

Which, of course, meant it was clearly Sayaka, who I remembered could be handy with a fire extinguisher.

Of course, there was also the issue that Sayaka was supposed to be dead.

"I'm afraid I have a lot to tell you and your friends, and not much time to tell it," I said. The little girl gave a nod and I directed a look at her. "Yes?"

"Doctor who?"

I actually smirked at that. "Just the Doctor." I looked to Mami and wondered how she could remember me after the timeline change... but only for a moment, as the answer was pretty obvious; aside from Homura she was the only magical girl to have been in the TARDIS. Even if everything of her world was rewritten, the TARDIS' participation in it could not be overridden like that. "And you, young lady?"

"They call me Bebe, but I used to be Nagisa." She sniffed. "Do you have any cheese?"

I raised an eyebrow. The last meal had indeed included a cheese dish. "Well, it's more operative to say I had some... but we really should get moving. I need to find Homura."

"She's out of control right now," Mami said.

"Yes, I rather noticed your fight with her. It doesn't look like you had too much trouble with it. Rather surprising."

"That's because Mami is smart and used a decoy made of ribbons the entire time," Bebe proclaimed. "She's super smart like that!"

I looked at Mami. "You can do that? Really? It would have been bloody useful at the Air Temples."

Mami blushed. "I've been perfecting them, I wouldn't have done very well with them at that time."

"I see. Well." I got to my feet. "Short story is... this is a very nasty little pocket dimension being fueled by a living being's despair, in this case Homura's. We've all been pulled in. The Incubators have instigated this to test for the force that causes soul gems and the magical girls with them to disappear when they've become corrupted and, well, they must be stopped before they do any real damage in trying to thwart that."

"Bebe said Kyubey was responsible?"

"He is. It is. Not what it seems, that thing. Anyway, we need to get to Homura, and then I have a plan to crack that barrier. And, finally..." I patted my head, confirming there was nothing on it. "I need to find my fez."

Bebe offered the fez immediately. The poor thing was damaged on one side, hit by the same rock that had struck me. And hit first by the look of things. In all probability it had saved me from a severe head injury. I took it and signed, inspecting the damage, where the dust of mortar and stone had stained the bright red coloring. "There you are," I mentioned before I put it back on. "My lucky fez, works every time."

That got me a giggle from the young girl.

As we walked along, Mami asked the obvious question. "Doctor, what are the Incubators?"

"A powerful, advanced alien civilization capable of converting emotion into energy," I replied. "Energy that exists outside of the normal universal system. They use this energy to fuel a system that withstands entropy, that is, the heat of waste energy that will potentially degrade the universe..." I went on to explain, in broad strokes, how this related to the "magical girl" system, and how it used to function. I knew Mami would be sensitive to it, although at least Madoka's changes made the news something she could bear more easily.

"So that's why she attacked Bebe. She thought Bebe was one of these 'witches'." Mami shook her head. "To think of all the times I pet that creature."

"It's good at manipulation. Granted, it doesn't need it as much in this new timeline, so I suspect its behavior is less manipulative and more honest. On the other hand, I doubt this is the first time they've tried to experiment with soul gems to find out what your 'Law of the Cycle' is. This is just the first time they've put real, overbearing effort into it." I sighed. If we weren't already on bad speaking terms, I'd almost be ready to scold Homura for letting the Incubators know about what was supposed to happen with darkened soul gems. "Can you reach the others? It's best if we're all together to help Homura when she finally realizes what is going on." 

* * *

When we all met it was at the courtyard near the school, along the small stream that ran there. Aside from Homura, none of the other magical girls knew me

The red-haired girl needed no introductions, especially not with her irritated tone of voice. "Who is this guy? He's not another fake." Kyoko eyed me over, showing some distrust.

"Ah, Kyoko Sakura. Charmed." My eyes moved to the girl standing beside her. "And Sayaka Miki. A pleasure as well."

Unlike Kyoko, i saw a flicker of recognition in her blue eyes. Rather surprising as I'd never interacted with her. Of course, I had questions of my own concerning the fact she was supposed to be dead.

Then again, so was Bebe, whom Kyoko now noticed. "What the hell is going on here?!", she demanded at seeing Bebe in normal form. "You're a magical girl too?!"

"Uh huh. I was in disguise."

"So what are you doing here, Doctor?" Sayaka was looking at me intently.

"Oh, I'm here to help. To keep a promise, I should say."

"He's got weird stuff with him." Bebe went up to Sayaka and handed her... what was that? I patted my pocket and realized one of the scanners I kept on my person had been removed, or had fallen out somehow.

Sayaka inspected it closely. "This _is_ weird. But I'd expect that."

"Huh?" Kyoko looked at her in confusion. "What do you mean by that? And where's Madoka? Everyone's supposed to be coming, right?"

I swiveled my head slightly. "What? _Madoka_ is here?" That didn't make sense, that didn't work. She'd moved on to a higher plane of existence, she existed at all points of time with no links to a mortal life. She was literally erased from the memories of history.

"Yeah, why shouldn't she be?", Mami asked me.

I went to speak but looked toward Sayaka first. Sayaka was looking at me with curiosity, but nothing too intense. What was she doing here? And Madoka was here too? How? And then there was Bebe, who was...

I'm pretty sure that despite my best efforts, my expression showed realization. "Of course," I sighed, snapping my fingers. "This is a rescue mission, isn't it?"

I seemed to finally make Kyoko snap. "Just what is he talking about?! What's going on dammit?!"

"How much have you told them, Doctor?" Sayaka asked.

"Mami knows about the Incubators," I explained. "And how the world worked before Madoka's ascension." Seeing the frustration on Kyoko's face, I realized I might end up with a spear in my face if things weren't explained. "I was just drawn in, so this is clearly your show. Tell them what you need. But let's be quick about it, eh? Homura's condition is worsening, and if she's questioning this world like you say she is... then it might all come apart soon, and we need to be ready." I brought out the sonic. "I'll scan, you talk. And then I'll answer..."

There was the trill of a ringing phone. All eyes turned to Kyoko as she reached into her rear pocket on her shorts and pulled out a cell phone. "Hey, Homura?"

She had our attention. "Wait, witches? Is this something else I'm supposed to remember?"

"Tell her to meet us here," I urged in a low voice.

"Why don't you come meet me by the school?" Kyoko's brow furled. "What about Madoka? Of course I know her, I... Wait, are you... do you mean?!"

"Kyoko, give me the phone," I asked.

"Is this a bad joke?", Kyoko demanded, ignoring me for the moment while Homura spoke on the other end. "Are you all right? Where are you now?"

Faint orange light appeared below us,, growing brighter by the second. "Look out!", Bebe shouted.

I turned and looked up, just in time to see the zeppelins in the sky catching fire and crashing toward the ground. The front of one looked horrific, like a flaming face with sharpened teeth.

And it was coming right for us.

We all jumped away, barely evading as the flaming dirigible crashed into the walkway, sending stone and soil spraying up as it flew along and left a flaming trail of destruction behind it.

I picked myself up from the ground, seeing everyone lit up by the flames, and nearly lost my footing as the ground rumbled beneath us. The city beyond us was lit red with flames as new structures shot up from the ground. They looked unreal, drawn from a stylistic painting, and as the city trembled and made itself over into a blazing inferno, I realized what had happened. I could feel the oily, wrong nature of the place grow sharper as all pretense was dropped.

I looked to the others. "We've got to get to Homura, _now_." And without waiting, I pulled out my sonic and broke out into a run, following the readings as best I could through the warped skein of the world around us.

The others were quickly on my heels. "Hey!", Kyoko shouted. "You still haven't explained what's going on!"

"No time!", I shouted back.

"What do you mean no time?"

"Because Homura knows," I replied succinctly. "She knows she's the witch of the labyrinth. And if we don't get to her before she succumbs to the truth, we may never get her back."

* * *

Dodging flames and shifting buildings is never fun. But it was what we had to do.

I was in the lead, but I suspect that was only because I was the one with the handy scanner. We had to jump to our right to avoid a new building sprouting from the Earth, all wrong and looking more like a painting than anything. My hand itched as I thought about grabbing the TARDIS remote. But that would risk Homura; she had to be in the right mental state when the quantum isolation field was broken if I was going to have time to deal with her soul gem.

From the flaming ruins of the fake city a structure rose into he air, resembling something like a bee hive. The sonic's pulsing grew more rapid as I pointed it toward the structure, which looked to be hundreds of feet into the air. "Well, that's inconvenient," I remarked. "Any ways up? Can't a couple of you fly?"

"I have a better idea." Mami held out her arm and yellow ribbon is flew from it, spiraling together and tangling until they formed a sort of platform. I stepped on it and gave it a test. Despite an instinctive certainty that it wouldn't hold, it did in fact hold. It held everyone. Mami motioned slightly again and the ribbon platform lifted off.

"You really have been working on this, haven't you?", I remarked.

The platform couldn't go fast enough. Although it was moving at a decent clip, I felt rising impatience as the world around us finished shedding the facade of "reality" and became the bizarre landscape of a labyrinth. Time was short.

We pulled up into the structure proper and entered through sets of arches. The others jumped off as the platform came to the ground. here were figures in what looked to be a colosseum, as in _the_ Colosseum. Toy soldier figures were standing around us. Familiars, or at least one type; I recognized the other inhuman-looking black clad models as the ones who'd dragged me in here.

One area looked like a bedroom or sick room etched out of a structure of shelve. Homura was standing in it and in the middle of a conversation, from the sound of things.

The other voice was noticeable for its high pitch and, simultaneously, its complete lack of emotive tone. As I looked around I realized there were several Kyubeys moving in and out of the shadow, conducting the conversation together. He stopped as we stepped up. "Very interesting. Where is Madoka Kaname, though?"

"She's none of your concern," I growled. "I think it's time we put an end to your little experiment."

"_You_."

I had never heard that pronoun spoken with such venom before.

I looked over and saw Homura's eyes staring right at me, with an intensity that would have melted solid... anything, I think. "You tricked me!", she shouted.

"I'm sorry, I was out of line when I drew you into the fight for the Air Temple," I replied.

"This isn't about that!", she raged. "You told me I'd save Madoka! You said all I had to do was keep looping! But it was the problem all along! It's why she sacrificed herself, why we lost her... why _I lost her!_"

The familiars began hefting weapons and coming for us. Or, rather, coming for me.

"You could have stopped her!," Homura screamed. "You could have beaten _Walpurgisnacht_ yourself! And she wouldn't have had to..."

Twinned with Homura's rage and feelings, the familiars charged us. I whipped out the sonic and tried to use the same disruptive setting I'd once used to stop _Walpurgisnacht_'s little minions. But either being inside a labyrinth or some other change made the effort ineffective.

"Finally, this looks like some fun!" Kyoko generated her spear and charged, slashing at them all.

The others joined in as more of the familiars appeared from the shadows. Sayaka went at them with swords drawn, on my back, and Mami and Nagisa took the flanks. "Did you know about what would happen to Madoka?"

"I did," I replied. "My question, how do you know who I am? I'm guessing..." I ducked to avoid getting struck by a swinging staff in the air, buying time for Kyoko to kill it with a single swipe as part of her ongoing offensive. "...that you are here with Madoka to save Homura from the Incubators. That you are essentially the magical girl equivalent of a valkyrie or herald."

"We're more like her secretaries."

"Ah. And I trust magical girl Valhalla agrees with you? Lots of ethereal sleepovers and the occasional pillow fight, I imagine."

"It actually gets boring sometimes, but a happy kind of boring," she informed me.

"It'd be perfect, but we don't have cheese!", Nagisa complained, having overheard us.

I used the sonic disruptor and blasted what looked very much like an 18th Century line soldier off of Nagisa's side. "Quite horrible, that. No cheese. I can't imagine the thought of eternity without a good cheese. Life isn't worth living without some Lancre Blue." I looked back. Homura was leaning against the glass of the model house she was standing in, her expression full of fury and anger. "I need to get over there and calm her down if our plan is going to work."

"Breaking the Incubators' isolation field?"

"Right."

"Well, we had thoughts on that," Sayaka revealed. "It involves hitting it a lot."

I smirked. "I suppose with magical girl powers that could work. But I have a better idea, one that will shatter it beyond the Incubators' ability to restore it. I just need a few minutes of calm and, preferably, a calmed down Homura."

"We'll do what we can. Excuse me." Sayaka leapt ahead, swords slashing, and went to cover Kyoko's back. I turned away, knowing they would want that private moment. My eyes focused on Homura as I blasted another grenadier familiar with the sonic disruptor.

I moved forward, ducking under another of the blackhats' bayonets, and with setting 42 activated ran ahead and plowed into the numbers of the black coats. I took the moment to look over the situation, and it was not looking very good. More were pouring in, responding to Homura's emotional state, and the girls with me were going to be overwhelmed by them quickly. Nagisa had evened the odds somewhat, spawning her own familiars it appeared - perhaps a function of being one of Madoka's heralds? - but the numbers weren't enough, our space was too confined.

And above it all sat Kyubey, watching impassively at the fighting his actions had wrought with that same plastered on smile.

Too bad I couldn't wipe it from his face. It was sort of permanent.

"Homura, you've got to listen to me. Stop this!" I got closer, right near the glass. "They're all here to save you! Madoka came to save you! Stop fighting us and..."

"_How dare you?! You come to me like a friend but... but you're not! You're just like the Incubators, we're only here for you to trick and manipulate into doing what you want us to!_"

"I was wrong, Homura! _I was wrong_. I..."

"_Why didn't you save Madoka, Doctor?! Why did you let her sacrifice herself?!_"

"Because it was a Fixed Point," I answered. "Because..."

"I _don't care!_" Homura raised her arm and, in a single gesture, the entire top section of the structure she was standing in exploded, turning her room within into a ceiling. I looked away long enough to blast a familiar with the sonic disruptor to send it back. With more attacking I put on Setting 42 to hold them back. "You let Madoka take on a burden she never wanted! You..."

"There was nothing I could do to stop it," I insisted, realizing as I did that this was an anger, a wrath, that would not be assuaged so easily. "History cannot always be changed! I've tried! _I already tried here!_ That's what I was doing when we first met!"

More familiars flowed in, these the ones in black suits, and I couldn't shield from them all. One went around my disruptor's deflector field and, being a quick bugger, smacked my arm with its staff. The impact hurt like the dickens and caused me to drop the disruptor, leaving me open to get swarmed.

"Doctor!" Mami had seen me go down, but the grunt I heard from her a moment later told me she was in her own danger.

I found myself held down, on my knees, barely allowed to look up as Homura levitated downward, wearing a black dress that was not her usual thing. Red lines erupted from her feet as they touched the ground. She came toward me and, just for a moment, generated her time buckler to pull a gun out.

Which she promptly pointed at my head.

"I told you not to come back unless it was to save Madoka," she said. "And I told you what would happen if you tried manipulating me again"

"I didn't," I protested. "And that's why I came back! I can save...!"

"_I don't believe you!_," Homura screamed.

And then she pulled the trigger.

* * *

There was a thundercrack.

And with it came a bolt of lightning.

The thundercrack was from Homura's gun, pointed at my head. The lightning... was the flash of pink energy that zoomed across my vision, vaporizing the bullet and hitting the gun barrel enough to throw Homura's aim off.

Homura's rage-filled eyes went wide. Anguish and fear took the place of the rage that had been burning inside of her. The red lines began to subside.

We both turned our heads.

Madoka was holding her bow, ready to string another shot. The look on her face was not angry or upset or bewildered; it showed only what I could call sad kindness. "Homura. Please don't. I can't let you hurt him, he's trying to help you."

"Madoka..." When Homura glanced back toward me, I could see shame in her eyes, shame and uncertainty and total, complete fear. "I'm sorry. I can't..." She fell to her knees and began weeping, overcome.

Even with the familiars stepping back, I did not move. This wasn't my part. I knew that for this, I was a mere spectator.

As Madoka moved forward I could feel the energy building around her.

"Took you long enough," Sayaka teased gently, walking up beside her, with Nagisa following. They each put a hand on her and I could feel the thrum of power, the power that Madoka had attained with her wish to prevent all witches from ever being created. This was clearly not even a smidgen of what she had become, but it was still enough to be, at least, extremely impressive.

Homura didn't stir from where she was crying. Madoka knelt down beside her and took her into a hug. "It's going to be okay," she assured her friend.

"It's not though. You had to leave everyone you love! Nobody remembers you! You're suffering because _I couldn't save you!_", Homura wept. It was clear now that for all she harbored anger towards me... nothing compared to how much she was hating herself for what happened to Madoka.

"No." The gentle answer came as Madoka's hand gently worked through the locks of Homura's hair, twirling them and looping the locks together into a braid. "You're so lonely and sad, I wish I had come for you sooner than this. You would be happy."

"I don't deserve to be happy," Homura wept. "I've been..."

"It's okay." Madoka briefly looked my way. "I remember you, Doctor. Are you alright?"

"I am." I stood up at this point. Even though she had spoken to me... I felt very much like an intruder as the other girls gathered closer. This wasn't my place. I didn't belong here.

None moved further as the scene played out. Homura let out years, it seemed, of grief and loneliness. Madoka gently wove her hands in and out of the locks of Homura's hair until she had recreated the braided pony-tails Homura used to wear, which she bound together in ribbons. I watched the scene and felt relief, sadness... and guilt. I hadn't warned Homura of what was going to happen. I couldn't have... but it didn't change the fact that it hurt her.

I had done the responsible thing and had still caused pain. Unavoidable yet always something to regret. I'll always wonder if I could have come up with a better way, a better method, something to have prevented the terrible pain playing out here.

Homura's weeping subsided slowly. Madoka didn't end the embrace so much as she shifted, freeing her arms to bring something up toward Homura's face. With a tender smile she put Homura's glasses back on. It was a more complete transformation than Clark Kent ever managed with the same thing; just looking at her brought to mind not a graceful magical girl of skill and power, but a wounded young girl who had gotten mixed up in this mess solely to get back her friend. A friend that meant more to her than life itself, a friend she had quite literally sold her soul to save.

It was a beautiful moment. Naturally, it had to be spoiled.

"Madoka Kaname. The Law of the Cycle." Kyubey waltzed up amongst us. "Now that you've revealed yourself, isn't it time to bring Homura with you? Dissolve her soul gem and make it vanish, just like you do with the others."

Eyes started turning toward the little bugger. I took the first step of intercepting him, standing between him and where Madoka was consoling her friend. "Yes, you'd like that, wouldn't you? The whole point of this painful little experiment."

"I would be most interested to know just what kind of being _you_ are, Doctor. We do not know of any species with 'TIme Lords'."

"Oh, of course you haven't. I'm not from this cosmos." I glanced back to the others. As we talked, more Kyubey bodies were entering the colosseum.

Kyubey processed this information and returned to business. "Madoka, Homura's soul gem is beyond the point of no return. If you don't use your power on it, she will transform into a witch, and she will have to be destroyed."

"Madoka, don't," Homura pleaded. "I won't let them hurt you."

If nothing else was done that moment, I was sure Homura would strike out again. She would do something inadvisable, something that would push her beyond the point of saving.

"I'll take it from here," I said to her gently. I pulled out a phone and keyed it on. "Hello."

"_Doctor?! Are you alright?!_" Katherine's voice hinted at worry.

"A little banged up, but bright as rain," I answered. "Remember what I showed you on the TARDIS controls?"

"_...yes?_"

"Turn the Regulator to one third, if you would please. And then hold on."

"_I'm doing it now, Doctor._"

"How are you doing that?", Kyubey asked. "You shouldn't be able to communicate outside of the field like that."

"Oh, only you can?" My smile grew a little shark-like. "I've got a surprise for you, Incubators. _You're not the only ones with advanced quantum manipulation technology._"

I brought out my TARDIS remote and activated it.

For a moment nothing happened. And then, just as it seemed it hadn't worked... _**VWORP VWORP VWORP**_.

The TARDIS materialized behind me. "Everyone in," I said. I looked to Homura and Madoka, who for obvious reasons wouldn't be joining us. Neither would the two of Madoka's heralds. They didn't exist outside of this place... well, Homura did, but that was because this was inside her... you know what I mean. "Don't worry about Homura, Madoka. I'll take care of her. I made her a promise and I mean to keep it."

"Thank you, Doctor," she answered.

There was a surprising whimper to the side. I looked over to see Kyoko embracing Sayaka, looking very much like she wanted to cry. They whispered to each other. I thought it best not to listen in, so I didn't listen. I simply heard what they said. It was loss and regret.

The Kyubeys began approaching the TARDIS, so I took up station in front of the door, sonic screwdriver extended. "Don't. I don't want to disable the lot of you. We'll be having a talk when we get out of here."

"You're trapped inside the isolation field now, Doctor," Kyubey pointed out. "How can you get out?"

"You let me worry about that. Go bugger off, we'll be out of here soon enough and I can give you a proper talking to."

Mami and Kyoko boarded the TARDIS behind me. Katherine was waiting at the door as I backed in and closed it, making sure the Incubators couldn't enter. I returned the sonic screwdriver to my pocket and went to the controls.

"It's so much smaller on the outside," Kyoko remarked.

I gave her a look. "Bigger on the inside. It's more fun if you say 'bigger on the inside'." I flipped several levers and switches, moved the Regulator to a wider position, and took up my place at the main lever. "Alright everyone, hold on tight. This could get a bit bumpy."

I pulled the lever. "Tally ho!"

Golden light seeped around the controls. The TARDIS engine began to _**VWORP**_, but with a higher speed to it, changing the pitch of the most beautiful sound ever. She sounded ready, like she knew there was a barrier and had decided it needed a stern seeing to for trying to block her way.

The TARDIS shook underneath us as it struck the isolation field. With the Vortex Regulator open and adding more energy to the shift, the quantum barrier was faced by power the Incubators had never faced before. I could imagine the sight from within the field; golden light beginning to gather at its boundary and growing, the field flashing and wavering as it faced the energies of the TARDIS.

It resisted fiercely, making us rock about in the control room. The Incubators were good.

But I knew the TARDIS was better.

"Hold on!", I shouted out again. "We're almost there!"

The TARDIS kept going and the Incubator field held... it held...

And then it broke.

It shattered like glass trying to hold in a speeding bullet. In one flash of energy the entire field collapsed, unable to restrain the TARDIS. "Ha ha! Take that, bunnycat!" I pet my hand on the TARDIS control. "You showed them my girl!" With a flip of the switch I set her down on the ground. I raced by the others and threw open the door, my sonic screwdriver already in hand. I pointed it toward the pedestal that Homura was laid upon and keyed the screwdriver. It activated the machinery inside and brought the rose-covered platform down toward us.

I didn't have a lot of time. Homura's soul gem was on the cusp, the very line. If I was to save her, it had to be now.

Around me, Incubators started to coalesce. "You are more powerful than we had realized," they conceded, their voices overlapping in an eerie "I am Legion" way. "What will you do now?"

"Give you a scolding," I remarked. "It's bad enough you still pursue adolescent girls, children too young to understand what you're asking of them and what you're offering. But you're also bloody greedy with this witch business. I stayed away after Madoka changed this cosmos because you could do the harm you did before. And here you are, ready to begin that bloody business _all over again_."

"The grief cubes are an inefficient means of gathering energy compared to the power of a magical girl becoming a witch," the Incubators replied. "To resist entropy we must have more energy."

"Not this way," I answered. "_I_ won't allow it."

"You are quite advanced, yes. But how would you stop this process? It is clear to us that without external interference, the inevitable fate of magical girls is to become witches. This process is natural and must be resumed. We will find a way. You are one being. How would you alone stop us?"

I had so many answers, some of them nasty. A virus that would so thoroughly destroy the Incubator hive mind that it lobotomized their entire civilization. A temporal event that wrecked their homeworld. I could go back in time and alter their development, if I wanted to risk it.

But I had a better idea.

I looked back to see Katherine and the girls watching the conversation. Katherine... she had yet to see me like this, ready to commit some large-scale destruction of my own if it stopped something horrible. I didn't know how she would take it. I didn't know how she would take the approach I'd decided upon.

Then again, it was one the Incubators would probably survive, so it wouldn't be too bad.

"So that's it then? You'll keep feeding upon Humans for energy? Not a care in the world that they are a sentient species as well?"

"We are not malicious towards Humanity, Doctor," the Incubators protested. "We acknowledge them as a sentient species and seek to enter a mutually beneficial arrangement. It is true that some Human girls have died, and some would be turned to witches when we succeed, but compared to prolonging the universe, that is a logical price to pay."

"You say you're not malicious, eh?"

By this time the pedestal had reached the bottom. Homura's darkened soul gem glittered, well, darkly in the seahorse cup thing at the top. I walked over and grabbed it, holding it up. "You talk about this like it's a power source. Energy. I suppose, to you, that's what it is." I advanced on the nearest gaggle. "You don't understand Human emotions, after all, or any for that matter. You don't have any. You have no idea of what this feels like. You have absolutely no idea, no real idea, of the damage you cause, or what you're talking about when you speak of. You don't understand." I reached down and, with my free hand, snagged one of the Incubator bodies by the scruff of the neck. I could feel the hive mind through it.

No, beyond the hive mind. I could feel the Incubators as a whole. I sensed them across the vast spaces of this galaxy, even to others, a mind bent to a single purpose; _Save ourselves. Stop entropy. It is not logical to be ended._

"This isn't just a bunch of emotional energy," I growled, holding Homura's soul gem up to it. "This is a _being_. She has hopes and dreams, she has fought and suffered and struggled against what you've done. All to save one friend, to fulfill one promise. And this is what you've done to her. This is all pain and despair and sadness. Her's. From your works. You say you're not malicious? Then it's ignorance. And that may be even worse."

I looked at the gem. Last time I'd seen it like this, I'd drawn the darkness out myself. And it had almost killed me. Homura's despair and mine... it was too much for even a Time Lord to bear. Oh, maybe I could do it now, now that I was more experienced, but if something went wrong I didn't have Jan and Hannah to save me from it.

"I've felt it, you know," I said to the Incubator I was holding. "I once took her despair from her to clean the gem. Her pain and despair is so powerful it nearly crushed me." I looked into its permanent smile and alien eyes and smiled. "And that's where we have a problem, isn't it? You don't _know_ what this is. You've never felt these things before."

I reached my mind into the soul gem. Homura's pain and loneliness began to seep into me, the black energy forming around my hand.

"Do you know what a Doctor does, Incubator?", I asked. "Doctors don't just heal. They _teach_."

And with that said, I pressed Homura's soul gem against the Incubator, and in one push of telepathic power, I turned myself into a conduit.

A conduit to press the darkness of Homura's gem into _them_.

Black surged out of the Gem and into the Incubator. It thrashed in my grip and forced me to hold it steady as I kept pushing. As the conduit I felt was within, the crushing loneliness and sadness of Homura Akemi, the despairing feeling that she had failed Madoka, but it didn't overwhelm me because I didn't hold onto it. I sent it on its way, tears already forming in my eyes.

A wail erupted from Kyubey that I'd never heard from him. Blackness soon permeated the form in my hand... and from there it shot outward. Black began building in every Incubator present as the legion of voices wailed in inconsolable agony. The hive mind had never set itself up to block off any portion of its drones. There was nothing stopping what I'd started, indeed, nothing stopping it from jumping from Earth across the stars. Through the Incubator I held, I could see the dark energies cleansed from Homura's gem take hold across all of the Incubator civilization.

You might think that would dilute the effect. You'd be right, in most cases.

But when it was a civilization that had never known these emotions before... it was all the more potent.

As one the Incubators recoiled and screamed. _No! No, it hurts! Stop it! Stop it! __**PLEASE DOCTOR MAKE IT STOP!**_

Their voice boomed in my head. My response came immediately.

"Oh? It's too much for you, eh? This is what just one girl lives with. _One_. And you would have caused this for millions over the coming eons."

"_Please stop!_," the Incubators around us screamed. "_Please Doctor! We will cease the experiments! We will do anything! Make the pain stop!_"

The pleading was pitiful, but understood. They'd never experienced such a sensation before. It was frightening to them, frightening beyond words. Their minds would fail if they took on more.

So I relented. I cut the connection.

I'd cleaned most of her gem out, but I didn't stop pulling it. Again I took it upon myself. Tears rolled down my eyes as I sobbed openly, feeling the loss and betrayal Homura felt over Madoka's fate. I went to my knees and felt my hearts nearly burst; even that little bit of it was overpowering.

When I opened my fist, through the blurring of my tears I saw the purple gem shining again. I stared at it.

A hand touched my shoulder. I looked up and saw Homura's face, blurry as it was. Tears rolled down her eyes as well. She came down on her knees and embraced me.

"I'm sorry, my dear," I said to her. "I'm so, so sorry."

Homura said nothing. There was nothing to say. There was only weeping.

* * *

It took a while for me to work through the grief and loss I'd taken on. When I was done I looked out at the field of stricken Incubators, still trembling where they sat from the after-effects of being exposed to Human emotion. With great gentleness I took Homura by the shoulders. "I'll be right back. We still have something to talk about."

She nodded, wiping at the tears on her face.

I walked into the TARDIS and retrieved a data solid I'd prepared from intense study. I stepped back out and looked to Katherine, who was taking in the scene.

Homura was still looking down at her knees. Mami seemed the best adjusted, but she gave me a sad look. She remembered everything now, including the terrible loneliness in her life. Kyoko...

Kyoko was trying to hide it, but I could sense the bitter sobs almost waiting to come out. She had remembered everything too. Which meant she had regained Sayaka just to lose her again.

"Isn't there something we can do for them?", Katherine asked me.

"There is. I need to deal with the Incubators now, but if you will... I need something from the TARDIS. I think you know what."

She must have caught the look in my eye because she nodded and stepped inside.

I walked on to the Incubators and knelt down in front of them. "I trust my point is clear?"

"We had no idea," it answered. Alone. The hive mind was apparently too weak, still, to speak through them all. A few even looked damaged beyond repair. "Human emotions are too dangerous to meddle with."

"Good. Unfortunately, this cosmos isn't free of threats. The wraiths are still out there. Earth, and other worlds I suspect, will need help dealing with them."

"We cannot fight," Kyubey insisted. "It's not something we're capable of."

"Perhaps not. But you can help other species defend themselves from such threats." I held up the data solid. "Agree to do so, and I will provide you with another way to deal with entropy. They are called block transfer computations. You can't use computers; they get altered by the BTCs. Your species is still organic in structure, it can calculate them. You can use the BTCs to create links to extradimensional spaces that will draw in entropic forces."

"You would give this to us?"

"No. I would make a contract with you. If you help other species fight the wraiths, and in doing so you do not manipulate the youth of any species into contracts they are not ready to understand, I will provide you with the relevant data. When it comes to contracts, you will focus on older sentients. Any candidates approached are to be left alone if they say no. Those who are interested will travel alongside veteran magic wielders first, to learn what is at stake and what is expected of them. They must know and understand all aspects of this life before you let them make contracts. And you will never, _ever_ try something like this experiment again. If I catch one whiff of you breaking this contract, I'll put an end to the deal and you can face entropy like any other cosmos. Do you understand?"

"We understand. We will obey all stipulations of your contract without exception."

"Very well." I handed the solid over. Kyubey batted it around with his ears and knocked it into the port on his back, as if it were a grief seed.

For a moment nothing happened. And then, one by one, the Incubators blinked away, taken by some form of transporter system.

"What did you give them?"

I turned and faced Mami. "A means to avoid their greatest fear. They've agreed to my stipulations on further recruitment for the fight with the wraiths. I'll be back from time to time to keep an eye on things, but whatever you must say about them, they have the literal honesty of a Sidhe."

"And if they don't do what they promised?"

I looked to Kyoko. "Then I make them regret it."

This left only one thing to do. I walked up to where Homura was staring at the ground and brought her to her feet. "It's going to be okay," I promised her.

"No." She shook her head weakly. "I failed Madoka. I didn't save her."

"Well, actually, you did," I said. "You saved her from the fate Kyubey had in store. And by doing so, you enabled her to save your entire cosmos. I know that's not what you want to hear, though. You want her back."

"I do," Homura admitted. "I want her back more than anything."

"I know." i settled my hands on her shoulders and looked over her to where Katherine was stepping out of the TARDIS with a very important machine. "I made you a promise once. I did something horrible to you when making it, yes, and that means keeping that promise is all the more important to me." I let a smile come to my face. "That promise is why I came here, Homura. I believe I can fulfill it, here and now."

Homura remembered. I could see it in her eyes, the sudden flaring of hope.

I stepped around her and up to the device; my project. I dug into my pocket and pulled out the quantum scanner. Seeing the light blinking, two quick green pulses, made me laugh out loud. "Oh my. Well well... Everyone, your attention!" That got the attention of Mami and Kyoko; for the first time I noticed that the other people who had been actually alive in the false world were arrayed around us, slumbering on furniture. They were dead to the world.

I slipped my scanner into the machine and watched it confirm the data was viable. It loaded the data for use immediately. "This has taken me some time to build," I confessed to them. "I had to borrow and beg for parts, even steal some I admit, to make it work. And I'm convinced it will. Everyone cross your fingers, the ZedPM that's fueling it is the only one I could find and its on its last legs."

"Right." I finished my absolutely-last-step preparation commands.

Here went nothing.

"Tally ho!"

With a flip of a switch the device came to life. A "vreeeeeee" sound came from within as the projector device compiled the separate data structures and prepared them for the device at the top; the quantum compiler, cobbled together from basic concepts I took from Astronema's digitization machine. The process was taking a lot of power and the only thing I had that could properly power it without blowing the machine's delicate parts to bits was the old ZPM I found in one of many spots in the Pegasus Galaxy (it wasn't like the Genii could use it, after all).

There was a little sputtering in the machine, a flicker in the lights. The ZPM was running low on juice. "No. No no no, you hold out, alright? You bloody well hold out," I urged.

The others were looking in interest. I could feel the hope coming from Homura and knew that if this failed, she would be heartbroken all over again.

The machine beeped several times, sucking the ZPM dry and having trouble finishing its final operations. I noticed the power meter on the ZPM reach dead levels.

It wasn't going to work.

No, I wasn't going to let it go that way. _It was damn well going to bloody work._

The lights went out on it. The others gasped; even Mami and Kyoko, having little idea what I was doing, seemed intent on this working.

"You bloody well work!", I shouted, and then I applied a Spike Spiegel diagnostic.

That is, I kicked the bloody thing.

Oh, sure, that wasn't going to work, but it felt good.

And a moment later, just long enough to be clearly not related to the kick, the machine flashed back to life. The quantum compiler llit up and generated a wide field below itself. As the energy on the ZPM drained to its final exajoules (or was it petajoules?) three figures coalesced, assembled by the compiler from the raw quantum signature data I'd loaded into it.

Madoka. Sayaka. Nagisa.

"It can't be, how the hell?!" Kyoko's outburst was half-bewildered, half-overjoyed.

Madoka was in a school uniform, the other girls in their magical girl outfits. Obvious, of course; that was how the quantum scanner read them. I waited patiently while the machine confirmed it had instituted 100% compilation. And then, with a final flicker and warning tone, it died, the ZPM within completely drained.

The three girls looked around. "Where...?" Madoka was especially confused, looking around.

And then she cried out.

The others did too, and all three fell to their knees. Homura rushed forward. "Madoka!"

I intercepted her, holding her back. "Wait! It's happening! Just as I thought it would!"

They cried out and squirmed a bit, though they all remained on their knees.

"Doctor, what...?" Katherine looked to me with concern from beside the machine. "What's wrong with them."

"It's quantum synergy," I remarked. "They're exact quantum duplicates, this is forging a link with their counterparts. If I'm right..."

Well, if I was wrong, it'd be for nothing. They'd be absorbed with their ascended goddess and valkyrie selves, and everyone would be disappointed. All of my research indicated this was a good possibility. Their other selves had so much power, after all, and it wasn't clear that Madoka could exist outside of her new form.

I was willing to bet it didn't work that way.

Madoka looked up at us. Her eyes turned gold. She was linking with her ascended self.

"Come on, come on. Finish the link. Finish it and stay..." I urged.

"Madoka, don't go!", Homura cried.

"I'm..." Madoka seemed to fade around the edges.

My hearts fell. It wasn't going to work. After all this, it wasn't...?!

"You can be both," I said. "You can be here and everywhere. This is the way, make it work!"

"Please," Homura begged. "Please come back. Don't leave me alone again," she cried.

It looked like it was for nothing. All three of them were beginning to show signs of being absorbed by their higher selves.

And then... my hearts fell into my stomach. It wasn't going to work. It had been a good idea, but it simply wouldn't...

There was a shift of energy in the air.

Madoka's eyes turned normal.

She stopped groaning and looked down at her hands. "What...?" She toppled over, looking spent.

"Madoka!"

I let Homura go at that point, letting her hold her friend up.

The other two were doing the same now. Their forms stabilized and they fell over. Kyoko and Mami went to their sides to aid them.

"Doctor...?" Katherine looked at me. "Did it work? Have you?"

"We'll know any second," I answered.

Madoka looked up and opened her eyes. "Homura," she murmured. "How am I here? What happened to..." Her expression straightened. "I'm... real again?"

I couldn't restrain it anymore. I shouted in glee and pumped my fist. "Yes! Yes yes yes!" I grabbed Katherine and lifted her into my arms to spin her, drawing a surprised yelp from her that turned into a laugh. "It worked my dear! It worked perfectly! Ha ha ha ha! Everybody lives! Oh, how I love being able to say that, Katherine! _Everybody lives!_"

Kyoko helped Sayaka up. "What..?" Sayaka looked at me as I twirled like an idiot with Katherine in my arms. Well, two Sayakas... wait, that was the dizziness and euphoria. "What happened?"

I set Katherine down before we both got sick. "Quantum synergy!", I shouted. "It worked beautifully! Oh, it had me worried there!" Seeing my explanation hadn't sufficed, I continued. "Look, my scanner devices had acquired quantum signatures of all three of you. Madoka, admittedly, was earlier, I got that back when I saw her just before she made her wish that changed everything. But... what this meant was that if I could put together a device that could use a complete quantum signature and run it through a quantum compiler attached to a matter-energy subspatial converter, it could make a quantum duplicate of what I scanned! A quantum duplicate that was like the original in every way up to the point of scanning! Everything, even information in the brain! That's what sets it apart from being a clone. And _it worked_! And then there was the quantum synergy part, I wasn't sure if you would get absorbed into your original selves or not because they exist as... whatever it is they are now. But the synergy stopped at the link. You are them, they are you, and here you are again, part of this world!"

My explanation got me a lot of blank looks. "You sure use 'quantum' a lot," Kyoko remarked.

"It's my thing. I _am_ the Visiting Lecturer in Quantum Wibbly at Unseen University, you know. Quantum. Quantum quantum quantum. Oh, quantum quantum quantum, feel it roll off the tongue!"

Okay, I was acting a bit like an idiot, but... it was just... this triumph lifted my spirits like I hadn't felt since... the Citadel, I suppose. Even the retaking of DS9 didn't rouse me like this.

For the first time since I lost Janias and Camilla, I felt like everything was _fantastic_. I had won a resounding victory, one that I could look back on with pride and joy.

"So, does that mean I can have cheese again?", Nagisa asked urgently.

"All the cheese you want, my dear!" I looked to Katherine. "Don't we have any of that Lancre Blue left?"

"I think," Katherine giggled, looking amused at seeing how giddy I'd become.

"Ah. Good! Lancre Blue for everyone!"

Madoka hadn't moved, presumably because she couldn't. Not with the way Homura held onto her, as if at any moment she might vanish. "You're back. I can't... you're _back_." Homura started crying. "You're back!"

"It's okay, Homura," Madoka assured her, smiling contentedly as her friend poured out tears of joy on her shoulder.

"Should I be jealous that you aren't crying like that for me?", Sayaka asked Kyoko.

"Hey, don't push it," the redhead retorted, but given the tears I saw forming in her eyes I'm betting she was thinking of it.

"Alright everyone. Time to get you back to the real Mitakihara," I said.

"And _to the cheese!_", Nagisa added eagerly, rushing for the TARDIS and pulling a hapless, smiling Mami with her. 

* * *

We had to pile the schoolteacher, the Kanames, and Hitomi and Kyosuke into the TARDIS before we left. It took a short time to put them all back in their beds, safe and sound, after which we saw the others off as well.

By the time we got Nagisa out, there was not one crumb of cheese left in the TARDIS.

By the end of it all, we were near the Kaname house. Madoka was with her family, giving hugs that confused them for how tight they were. Homura stood with me at the TARDIS door, watching it. "They remember her now?", Homura asked.

"Oh yes," I answered. "She... always existed, it's just that becoming what she became... reality got jumbled up about it. Now that she's back in the physical world, the effect is gone. Madoka Kaname always existed, and now she always existed _again_. It's multi-dimensional higher plane physics at work. And yes, I know how complicated that sounds. Time Lord brain."

She nodded and looked back to me. Her tear ducts had finally emptied, it seemed, so there were no tears as she gave me a tight hug. "I can never thank you enough," she said.

"Not necessary. I made the promise." I got to a knee to face her directly. "After all, where would we be if we hadn't kept our promises, eh?"

I heard an actual laugh from her. A small one. But for Homura Akemi, it was all I need to hear to know how things were going. "Where are you going now?"

"Oh, anywhere. Big multiverse out there. But I'll be back, don't worry." I reached into my pocket and offered her one of my altered phones. "With six magical girls Mitakihara should be in fine hands, but just in case something happens you're having trouble with... call."

Homura accepted the phone. "Or if the Incubators go back on their word."

"Especially then. But that shouldn't be a problem. Their entropy problem has more than one solution now. They don't need magical girls to stave it off. And that's all that mattered to them." I narrowed my right eye. "So, going to go back to the pigtails and glasses? I think Madoka was giving you a hint back there."

She smiled and shook her head. "No. That's not me anymore. Well... maybe I'll take the glasses back."

I laughed at that.

We looked beyond to where Madoka was waving at us. Or rather, waving at Homura, inviting her in. "Well, looks like I should stop taking up your time, Homura."

She nodded. Before I could stand to my full height, she took me into a tight hug. "Thank you so much, Doctor. Thank you for bringing Madoka back."

I put a hand on her back and accepted the tight hug. "You're welcome, Homura."

The hug ended as Madoka came racing up. "C'mon, Dad's making dinner!", she urged, prompting Homura to nod and follow her back. They gave me a final wave before disappearing through the front door.

I had returned the wave. When I was done I stepped into the TARDIS and closed the door. Katherine was standing beside the controls, looking over my ruined device. "You can't use it again?"

"Not any time soon. Some of those parts were rare, very rare," I remarked. "Best to put it with the other stuff. But first..." I twisted a few knobs and shifted the TARDIS.

* * *

I had shifted us ahead only a week. When we got back, near one of Mitakihara's parks, we watched from the door as cloaked things moved from the shadows. Wraiths, the new threat of this world. There were people fleeing from them. "Doctor, shouldn't we...?"

"I don't think it'll be necessary," i remarked. "Look."

First there was the crack of flintlock guns, moving in rapid succession. Mami came in swinging on one of her ribbons, firing them like they were a Gatling gun and taking out a wraith in the process.

The sound of a small trumpet heralded the arrival of Nagisa, who shouted "_Parmigiano Reggiano!_" before plowing in, firing off bubbles from the trumpet that exploded and sent wraiths flying backward.

Flying backward, it was soon clear, into the melee. Sayaka and Kyoko were on top of them in a moment, swords and spear slashing and sweeping their way through the cloaked things. They exploded in flames and darkness one after another.

There was yet more, though. Something, perhaps the fear of the spectators, was drawing the wraiths in. They formed up, pressing on the four magical girls that were cutting through their ranks, and it was just enough to get worried about them. But I knew not to be.

I looked up as two more figures jumped in, or rather flew in.

Homura and Madoka descended, energy wings dissipating from their backs as they hit the ground. They drew their respective bows and stood together, side by side, with knowing smiles on their faces. When they fired the projectiles from their bows turned into a storm of energy arrows, as if they were an entire legion of archers firing their projectiles into an enemy mass. The wraiths exploded and dissipated under the barrage.

Altogether, it looked like they were a rather impressive group.

"Looks like we're not needed," I said. I could see Homura and Madoka looking towards us. They noticed the TARDIS and smiled. I smiled back, nodded, and snapped my fingers to close the TARDIS door. With a pull of the lever we shifted out.

"Doctor, that was such a magnificent thing," Katherine said. "I'm happy we got to help them."

"As am I. So." I clapped my hands together. "Looks like I have to get busy. We have some dancing too get to, right?"

She looked at me. "You're going to come?"

"Of course. I love to dance." I winked. "And if you're worried about me embarrassing you socially, I think we can consult an expert in dancing. It's rather surprising that Mister Vakarian is so good at it, but I've seen Garrus waltz with Commander Shepard. If he can get her to dance well, maybe we have a hope of really stealing the show at your birthday, eh?"

At that, Katherine laughed. "I certainly hope so, Doctor."

With the smile still on my face and my hearts full of glee for what we had accomplished, I flicked more controls and grabbed the TARDIS lever. "Tally ho!"

And off we went, another glorious triumph under my belt.


End file.
